FOR ZION'S SAKE
An Anthology of Robert B. Thompson
A Reflective Study of Concepts Related to the Christian Redemption
Copyright © 1996, 2006 Trumpet Ministries, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About This Document
This document is a collection of statements organized under five major subjects.
Each major subject starts with its own Introduction.
Following its Introduction, each of the main subjects is further divided into several minor categories.
Under each minor category there are a number of statements related to that topic.
Each statement is followed by the clickable/tappable title of the book from which it was taken, and is a free download.
You can access more information from these various book titles by visiting our Book Library.
Below is a sample excerpt with explanations for how the material is presented:
Sample Explanation
THE KINGDOM OF GOD (name of subject under discussion)
Defining the Kingdom of God (Name of the minor category under discussion)
The Kingdom of God is, first of all, an inner kingdom. (Sample statement related to topic of discussion)
The Cross and the New Creation
(clickable/tappable title of book containing above statement)Taken together the above information tells us that the main category we are discussing is the Kingdom of God and that we are defining the Kingdom of God by stating, “the Kingdom of God is, first of all, an inner kingdom.” This statement is an excerpt from a book or article titled The Cross and the New Creation which is available as a free download from The Word of Righteousness Book Library.
To reinforce, here is another sample excerpt with explanations:
THE NATURE OF FAITH (subject under discussion)
“Faith Without Works Is Dead” (Minor category under discussion)
The doctrine of salvation “by faith alone” is totally unscriptural. (Sample statement)
(clickable/tappable title of book containing above statement)TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Introduction to the Kingdom of God
Defining the Kingdom of God
God in Christ in the Saints
God’s Will in Christ Worked Through the Saints on the Earth
The Union of the Spiritual and Material Realms
A New Race of Mankind
The Nature of the Kingdom of God
Built By God and Not Man
Demands Total Diligence
Established upon the Earth by Force
Requires a Transformation of our Character and Personality
Founded on Righteousness
Participants in the Kingdom of God
Called, Chosen, and Faithful
Crucified with Christ
Turn Away from Iniquity
One in Union with Christ
Made Perfect Through Suffering
SALVATION
Introduction to Salvation
Defining Salvation
More than Forgiveness…More than a “Ticket To Heaven”…Salvation Is Moral Transformation
The Goal and Purpose of Salvation
Not Where We Go but What We Become
The Nature of Salvation
Rooted in Judaism
Originates with God
Always an Opportunity….Conditional….A Change in Character Not Location
Requires Effort
Today Is the Day…
The Process of Salvation
Dynamic Not Static
Not to Be Neglected
Utilizes Suffering as a Tool
THE DAY OF THE LORD
Introduction to the Day of the Lord
Defining the Day of the Lord
What it Is, What it Is Not
The Day of Resurrection
The Nature of the Day of the Lord
A Day of Fearfulness for the Hypocrite
A Day in Which We Will Reap What We Have Sown
A Day To Prepare for in Advance
Participants in the Day of the Lord
Will Receive a Body that Reflects Their Spiritual Development
Overcomers Shall Appear with Him to Rule the Material Creation
FAITH
Introduction to Faith
Defining Faith
Beyond Belief in Doctrine…A Life of Obedience to God
The Nature of Faith
“Faith Without Works Is Dead”
Not an Excuse for Ungodly Behavior
Not Presumptuous
Acted Out in Obedience and Humble Dependence upon God
The Process of Faith
A Daily Fight
The Trial of Our Faith Works Transformation
THE REST OF GOD
Introduction to the Rest of God
Defining the Rest of God
God the Father at Rest in Christ in the Saints
Ceasing from Our Own Works
Victory Over All Our Enemies
Realizing There Is Only One Legitimate Will in the Universe
The Nature of the Rest of God
Lost Through Neglect
Not Passivity
A Daily Battle
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
The Process of Entering the Rest
Moving Past Pentecost Through Divine Judgment to the Fullness of God
TOPICAL INDEX
Israel and the Church
The Last Days and the Second Coming
The Major Bible Types
The Nature of Our Redemption
Orientation to the Kingdom of God
The Pauline Epistles
The Perfecting of the Church
The Person and the Work of the Lord Jesus
The Resurrection
Preface
Thinking upon the definition, nature, and process of God’s interaction with us can provide a fuller understanding of His goal and His purpose in our redemption.
This book is a compilation of excerpts from the writing of Robert B. Thompson on the Christian redemption, with a view towards providing a contemplative study of important concepts presented in the Old and New Testaments.
These concepts offer an overview of:
- the Kingdom of God
- the Christian salvation
- the second coming of Jesus Christ
- faith
- the rest of God
Rather than reading briskly through the material, the reader is encouraged to browse along in a meditative and reflective approach in order to allow the ideas presented to sink in and subsequently be compared with any previous comprehension.
The alert reader will realize that although individual passages are taken from different book titles, there is a subtle, yet distinct link between the excerpts that serves to weave a cohesive and integrated thought pattern.
Increased awareness of how Scripture defines the nature and process of our redemption can only benefit our preparation for the days ahead.
Edward J. Reiter
Escondido, California
February 1996
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
INTRODUCTION TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Each member of the Body of Christ has been called to the work of the Kingdom of God. This is his responsibility in the world, the meaning of his life.
We can choose to set ourselves apart to growth into sainthood, to the responsibility and work of establishing the Kingdom of God on the earth. If we do, we will lose our life for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s and gain eternal life and fruitfulness in the Kingdom of God.
We can choose to make our occupation in the world the focus of our time and energy. We may gain friends, acclaim, material wealth, every physical comfort. We can portion out some of this gain for the work of the Gospel when such giving does not require a painful sacrifice on our part.
The moment we die physically our choices will be evaluated. The believer who has dedicated his life to the work of the Kingdom will be greeted joyfully by Christ. He will be welcomed to the fellowship of the saints, to the ranks of those who also have dedicated their lives to the work of the Kingdom of God. His gladness of heart will know no bounds.
But the believer who has struggled so laboriously with the affairs of the world will recognize immediately that he has been deceived. His dedication to the world and neglect of spiritual values will be revealed for all to behold.
One of the most searing pangs of Hell will be the bitter remorse over opportunities forever lost. To think we could have spent our life for eternal gain! Instead, we so foolishly chose to occupy ourselves with tinsel, baubles, the cackling approval of worldlings. What sharp claws will tear our soul in that moment! It could have been so different. So different.
Let the foolish among us choose to occupy their time and strength with the visible world—that which will be done away when the universe is consumed in God’s fire.
Let the wise among us choose to set ourselves apart to the Kingdom of God so a multitude of others also may be set apart to God by means of the truth our life has become through our Lord Jesus Christ.
DEFINING THE KINGDOM OF GOD
God in Christ in the Saints
The Kingdom of God is, first of all, an inner kingdom.
The Kingdom of God is the union of a human being with God through Christ.
The Cross and the New Creation
The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in His saints.
The Kingdom of God, the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles of the Jews, is God abiding forever in Christ in the Bride of the Lamb.
The Kingdom of God is the enlargement of God Himself through Christ through people.
The Cross and the New Creation
The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the hearts of the saints and finally in the hearts of all those who inherit the new earth.
The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints ruling over the nations of saved peoples of the earth.
The Kingdom of God is the Presence and rule of God in us.
Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God
God has chosen to reveal Himself to mankind through Christ. Each saint who presses forward into eternal life until he is an integral part of Christ becomes, as a result, an integral part of the revelation of God. This revelation of the invisible God is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the rule of God through Christ—Head and Body—over the nations of saved peoples of the earth.
God will return to earth again in the Christ—Head and Body. This time He will remain forever. God intends to dwell on the earth in the midst of His children. He will do so by dwelling in the Church, the new Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb—in the people whom He has chosen for His eternal dwelling place. This is the Kingdom of God and the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.
The Kingdom of God is primarily an inner kingdom. There will be an outer, physical manifestation of the Kingdom. But the outer manifestation will be just that—a manifestation. It will be the manifestation of an inner creation.
God’s Will in Christ Worked Through the Saints on the Earth
The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in the earth, the obeying of God.
The Kingdom of God is that which is governed by the will of God as that will is revealed in Christ in the saints.
Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God is the rule of God through Christ through the saints. Only one Will is exercised in the Kingdom of God—the Will of almighty God.
The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven. God is concerned with obedience, with government, with righteousness, with holiness on the part of His creatures.
The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is performed in Heaven. The saints, under the Lord Jesus, are the rulers of the Kingdom of God. They will rule the nations with a rod of iron. The scepter of Christ’s kingdom is a scepter of righteousness. The saints will enforce God’s laws in the earth.
The Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Heaven) is the rule of God in Christ in and with the saints. This rule will come down from Heaven and enter the earth at the parousia (presence; nearness; coming) of Christ. All the nations of the earth will be ruled by God in Christ in and with the saints.
The Union of the Spiritual and Material Realms
The Kingdom of God is a convergence of the spiritual and material realms.
We Christians have been occupied for so long with the heavenly, spiritual dimension of the Kingdom of God that it is difficult for us to keep in mind that there is an earthly, physical dimension of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God is the entering of the heavenly, spiritual Jerusalem into the material Jerusalem.
The Kingdom of God is the making alive of the material realm by filling it with spirits that are righteous, holy, and obedient to God.
The Kingdom of God is the joining of the Divine and the human, the spiritual and the material. It is God in Christ in the saints governing and blessing all of God’s creatures.
The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints filling, ruling, judging, blessing, the material realm.
The Kingdom of God is the removal of darkness from the material realm and the filling of the material realm with the Spirit of God in Christ.
It is God’s intention to fill the entire creation with Christ (Ephesians 1:10). The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints governing and blessing all the saved creatures of the universe.
Aspects of the Resurrection of the Saints
The coming of the Kingdom of God is the entering of the spiritual dimension into the material dimension until the material dimension becomes filled with the righteousness and incorruptible eternal life of the Kingdom of God.
The new Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God, the Throne of God, will be located forever on earth; not in the spirit realm or beyond the clouds, but on earth.
A New Race of Mankind
The Kingdom of God is not a departure from reality.
The Kingdom of God is an actual Kingdom and will be located on an actual earth. It is not a mystical position in God in the spirit realm. A royal priesthood is being created that will judge and bless the nations of saved peoples of the earth.
The Kingdom of God is not a profession of faith in Christ, although a profession of faith in Christ is the only entrance into the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is actual righteousness, actual peace, and actual joy—all in the Holy Spirit of God.
The Kingdom of God is more than a label we attach to our personality. The Kingdom of God is more than a ticket to Heaven. The Kingdom of God is more than a religious doctrine about which we attempt to gain a correct knowledge and understanding. The Kingdom of God, the resurrection, is a living Seed that enters us causing us to be born-again.
Attaining to the Out-resurrection
The Kingdom of God is Christ. The Kingdom of God is a new race, not a repaired Adamic race. The Kingdom of God is a race of life-giving spirits.
The Kingdom of God is the forming of the Life of Christ in a human being. The Kingdom of God consists of human beings in whom Christ has been brought forth. In order for the Kingdom of God to exist there must be two births. There must be the birth from a woman, and then Christ must be born in us.
The Cross and the New Creation
There is a gulf between the race of Adam, and God. The race of Adam cannot enter the Kingdom of God. It is only as Adam is born again of God that the gulf is crossed. It is not that Adam becomes good enough to call himself God, it is that Adam is crucified and the new life into which he enters is of God. God is neither reforming nor saving Adam. God is crucifying Adam and issuing in Adam’s place a new race born of the eternal Life that is in Christ and is Christ.
In order for anyone to be transformed into the likeness of Christ he must die to what he is so he may become another kind of humanity. He must be born again if he would see and enter the Kingdom of God.
The members of the Kingdom of God are a new race. They are humans, but humans in whom every element of personality has become part of Christ.
They have died; but behold—they live!
They are crucified with Christ, yet they live. But it no longer is they who are living, it is Christ.
The new creation is the Kingdom of God.
The Cross and the New Creation
The Christian salvation results in a new creation. That which is mortal and corruptible passes away. That which is of Christ enters in and grows to maturity. The new creation inherits all the good of the heavens and all the good of the earth. The new creation is an eternal part of God through Christ. This is the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is not a kingdom by imputation, by ascribed perfection. It is a kingdom of actual perfection and righteousness.
THE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Built By God and Not Man
The work of the Kingdom of God is accomplished by means of the wisdom and power of the Spirit of God, not by the ambition and striving of the will and flesh of men.
It is the blood of the Lamb that provides the foundation and authority for all that takes place in the Kingdom of God.
It can be a help to our pursuit of Christ when we begin to understand the sovereignty of God in the building of the Kingdom of God. There is a plan. There is a design. God knows precisely what He is accomplishing with every creature in Heaven and on the earth, down to the smallest sparrow.
It is not the wealth and diligence of men that accomplishes the work of the Kingdom of God, it is the Spirit of God who performs all things.
No one is great in the Kingdom of God except as God has chosen him or her for the post. To sit on Jesus’ right hand and on His left will be given to those for whom such exalted glory has been prepared.
Saul represents the fleshly self-will of human leadership. Human leadership never will make a success of building the Kingdom of God.
Nothing built by Adamic wisdom and energy will endure in the Kingdom of God.
No amount of togetherness ever will create the Kingdom of God. In fact, there always is a danger, in togetherness, of Christian people finding solace in other Christian people and in their church and religious exercises, rather than in the Lord Himself.
The results of soulish attempts to build the Kingdom of God will be blown away during the age of moral horrors that is on the horizon.
Those of us who feel the desire in our heart to accomplish the works of the Kingdom of God have to learn this great lesson: “the Servant of the Lord must not strive.” We must learn to wait for the Lord. We must obediently follow Him as He leads us.
The Lord Jesus organized nothing. Instead He concentrated on teaching twelve men the nature of the Kingdom of God.
Our task in the present hour is to bear witness of the soon coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth, not to change society by force.
Christian political activism, unless directed by the Lord to meet a special need, is just one more attempt of the flesh to build the Kingdom of God.
While we may make reasonable efforts to teach children or disciple converts, the actual growth of the Kingdom of God is a mystery that cannot be managed by the brain of man.
The Spirit does not give us gifts so we may go about as so many deliverers in the earth. The gifts are given to us so we may build up the Body of the Christ, but only as the Lord directs. Any ministry that does not proceed from the cross, from a minister who is living a crucified life, is in immediate danger of becoming part of the False Prophet.
We need wisdom. We need to know what Christ is thinking. It is not enough to attempt to do good in the Kingdom of God. We must find God’s will for the present hour.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is one of sowing, not of management. The Lord Jesus went about sowing the good Seed of the Kingdom and teaching about the Seed of the Kingdom.
The works of Christ are eternal. They never shall pass away. The eternal accomplishments of the Kingdom of God are not brought to pass by the strength or wisdom of the flesh but by the Spirit of God.
The concept of not striving but rather speaking the Lord’s Word often is ignored. Each Christian church organization sets out to build the Kingdom of God by its own efforts. The result has been the employment of every kind of human force available, ranging from begging for money to the torture of heretics.
The work of the Kingdom of God is to be kept separate from the pursuit of money. The love of money is the “root of all evil.” We must never minister for money.
Until we absorb deeply into our consciousness the sovereignty of God in the building of the Kingdom of God we cannot find the rest of abiding in Christ. God often works in a manner so contrary to our understanding of what is appropriate, necessary, and desirable that we worry continually concerning our personal welfare and the adequacy of the work of redemption in the earth.
The question keeps coming to us: “Can these bones live?” The only answer is: “O Lord God, you know.”
Demands Total Diligence
It is in the wilderness that we are proven to be either worthy or unworthy of the Kingdom of God.
We have been commanded to not be conformed to the present world. The television set conforms us to the present world. We have been exhorted to make good use of our time. Watching television is not time occupied with building the Kingdom of God.
There is no place for laziness or sloppiness in the work of the Kingdom of God.
The Lord God provides every saint with the opportunity to demonstrate his worthiness of the Kingdom of God.
The Church Within the Churches
Every Christian has a part to play in the building of the Body of the Christ. In time past the work of building the Body of Christ has not progressed rapidly, perhaps because the majority of the believers have not been participating according to the scriptural pattern in the work of building the Body. Many Christians have been attending church meetings but have not actively been seeking their place of responsibility in the Kingdom of God.
The Lord Jesus commanded us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. When we do not do this we are wasting our time on the earth.
Disobeying God is unthinkable. Disobedience will not be tolerated in the Kingdom of God. The present willingness to disobey God is nourished by the concept of Divine grace as an unconditional, continuing pardon of our sins.
If, after having begun in Christ, we choose to give the bulk of our time and effort to eating, sleeping, playing, working, and reproducing, instead of seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness by attending to prayer, the Word, and service to the Lord, we will not weave the white robe of righteous conduct with which we hope to be clothed in the Day of Resurrection.
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
When we love the world the love of the Father is not in us. We must determine resolutely that we are a pilgrim and a stranger. The world is not our home. The earth is our home, but the present world system is of Satan, not of God. When we seek to be part of the present world, to be comfortable and secure in the world, we demonstrate we are not fit, not worthy, to be part of the Kingdom of God.
The Continuity of the Testaments
The Lord will never accept or work with people who are not seeking after the righteousness and holiness of the Kingdom of God.
The second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation divide the Christian churches into the victorious saints and the nonvictorious believers. All the rewards of eternal life and rulership in the Kingdom of God go to the victorious saints. It is the victorious saints who are privileged to eat of the tree of life.
Every Christian must follow his or her own calling. Those who are called to a high rank in the Kingdom of God must seek the Lord constantly until they have attained to the mark of their calling. There must be the calling, and then there must be a diligent response to the calling.
There is no retirement in the Kingdom of God.
The last days will be an extraordinary era, and many who serve God during this time will be among the first in rank in the Kingdom of God. It is a period during which an individual can reveal his determination to love and serve the Lord and become a victorious saint.
There is no sin in the Kingdom of God and, as Paul states, we believers cannot inherit the Kingdom as long as we continue in the passions of the flesh.
What is unworthy of the Kingdom of God will find its eternal abode in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. The tares will be removed from the wheat and cast into the fire.
The Kingdom of God consists of righteous people—people who, being filled with God and Christ, always perform the Lord’s will. The scepter of Christ’s Kingdom is a scepter of righteousness.
Entering the Kingdom of Heaven
God has warned us to listen to Him carefully in the present hour. We are in a time of fundamental change in the Kingdom of God. The Church has not passed this way before.
The victorious saints are the judges of the Kingdom. They will be given the most awesome responsibility of all—the authority to forgive sins or retain them, to admit a man or angel to Paradise or to deny entrance to the Kingdom of God. In order to exercise such tremendous authority the saint must be so prepared in the Divine crucible that there is an iron hardness against sin in his personality, and yet the ability to judge in an understanding and compassionate manner—to judge with the judgment of God Himself.
Paul, the principal teacher of the grace of God, has warned us clearly that believers who continue in sin will never inherit the Kingdom of God; they will never eat of the Tree of Life to the extent required to enter through the gates into the city, into Heaven.
Let us flee from the current teaching that so confounds the ability of the Christian people to make sense of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Rather, let us follow the example of the honored men and women of the Scriptures and press forward toward God with all our might. The rewards for doing so will be unimaginably great. The penalties for neglecting our salvation will prove to be more painful than our worst nightmares.
Every act of the Divine redemption and grace is a window of opportunity. Whether or not it finds fulfillment depends on the response of the individual. The person must cooperate with the Spirit of God if redemption is to occur. It appears that this immutable fact is largely ignored in current Christian thinking.
In the Kingdom of God there are opportunities that come to us. When they are gone they may be gone forever. We then must be content with our changed status in the Kingdom—if indeed we are permitted to remain in the Kingdom. Consider the changed status of Esau; of Reuben; of Eli the priest.
In the Kingdom of God an individual is judged on the basis of the light he has received, whether it be the Law of Moses, the Gospel of Christ, or his or her conscience (John 15:22-24; Romans 2:14-16; Romans 7:7-9).
The First And Second Resurrections
The Lord Jesus advised us that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees we will not enter the Kingdom of God.
Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed…
If the Adamic nature does not have integrity it is impossible for the Kingdom of God to be brought forth in us. The Seed of the Kingdom must fall into an “honest and good heart.”
The believer who persists in sinning will not inherit the Kingdom of God. There is no sin in the Kingdom of God. The part of our personality that is sinning is not of the Kingdom of God nor is it dwelling in the Kingdom of God.
Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God
Whatever a person sows he reaps. This is an inviolable law of the Kingdom of God.
There is no sin in the Kingdom of God. We cannot enter the Kingdom of God while we are practicing sin.
The Christian leaders teach that you will inherit the Kingdom in any case because grace is unconditional. Satan says you shall not surely die. Paul says you will not inherit the Kingdom of God if you continue in sin. You will slay your own resurrection, the resurrection that you had hoped would be to eternal life.
What do you say?
The concept that all the glory of the Kingdom of God can be ours without any effort on our part (except for raising our hand and stating our assent to certain scriptural facts) is appealing and reasonable to contemporary thinking.
We slay our spiritual life by not cultivating prayer and the reading of God’s Word. It nearly is impossible for a wealthy individual to enter the Kingdom of God because of the ability of material possessions to kill our spiritual nature.
The abundance of the material environment makes it difficult for the believer to determine his role in the Kingdom of God. The world expends time and energy attempting to convince him he must buy this or that. But he can never possess these “needed” things. They will possess him. They will dictate his joy and sorrow. They will determine the use of his time. They will require his attention and energy.
It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.
It is not easy to find our place in the Kingdom of God. It requires a determined, energetic approach. The world, Satan, our friends, our flesh, our self-will—all conspire to pull our attention down to the pleasures and problems of the world.
If we would come to know Jesus we must be willing to perform faithfully the tasks that are our part of building the Kingdom of God. The believer who is not performing some kind of service in the Kingdom should seek the Lord diligently in this regard. It never is the Lord’s will that a member of His Body be occupied solely with the responsibilities and cares of the world, having nothing to contribute to the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:16).
Christ desires to know if we truly love Him. If we do we reveal that love in faithful service.
The Church Within the Churches
Today the cold, the lukewarm, and the righteous all live and work together—and so to the end of the age.
But the Kingdom of God is without mixture. Every creature will be placed in the realm for which he or she is suited. Mixtures will not be permitted in that Day (Revelation 22:11).
How terrible it will be for an individual to come to the moment when the doors of the Kingdom of God are closed for eternity against him or her. Truly, there is no fate possible to a human being more dreadful, more terrifying, more filled with horror, than to know that it is too late to enter the Kingdom of God.
It is useless for Christ to return to the earth until His Church, His Body, has been made ready for the work of installing the Kingdom of God on the earth. If Christ intended to accomplish the task by Himself He would have done so two thousand years ago, preventing the centuries of anguish that have ensued since His first appearing.
But in order for the Kingdom of God to come to the earth the Body of Christ must be created, the Body of the Servant of the Lord. Let us, therefore, hasten the coming of Christ by growing personally in all godliness and holy behavior. The Judge stands at the door. Let us prepare our heart to receive Him.
The Kingdom of God is waiting to be taken by the person who cares enough to grasp it by faith, diligence, and patience. Are you such a person?
Established upon the Earth by Force
The coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth is the main subject of the Scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament.
The Good News of the Kingdom of God is that the Lord Jesus will return to the earth and by the power of God will establish righteousness on the earth.
The Kingdom of God will be installed on the earth with violence, with the smashing of opposition with a rod of iron.
Physical conquest is the coming of the Kingdom of God into the earth, the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven.
Because mankind, with some exceptions, is adamantly opposed to obeying God, the Kingdom of God will be installed on the earth by means of an invasion from Heaven. Sufficient force will be exercised to bring the nations under obedience to God and His Christ. There is no power that will be able to resist God when the time comes for the Kingdom to be established on the earth.
The Kingdom of God will descend to earth in total violence, crushing all resistance to the rule of Christ.
Some are teaching today that Christians will keep on attempting to do good until the Kingdom of God is established on the earth. This is not scriptural. The Kingdom of God will be installed suddenly and with violence, totally overpowering the wicked in a moment of time.
Because the Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven, and because the peoples of the earth are under the control of Satan and are rebelling against God’s will, it is clear (and the Prophets confirm this) that the Kingdom of God will be installed on the earth with violence.
According to the parables of Jesus, the outraged king on his return will slay his enemies. So it is in the Kingdom. The wicked will be crushed. The Kingdom of God is not a democracy, it is a kingdom that wages total war against the enemy.
Under Moses the people were not able to keep the dreadful Word. Under Christ, the One who is greater than Moses, the Word of God will be observed. All nations will keep the laws of Christ’s Kingdom. The laws of the Kingdom of God will be enforced by the “rod of iron”—the irresistible strength of the Spirit of God.
The coming of the Kingdom of God is at hand. It will be a day of refreshing and glory for the faithful saints, an hour of chastisement for the Lord’s people who have been unfaithful, and a time of judgment and torment for the wicked and rebellious.
Requires a Transformation of our Character and Personality
The Kingdom of God, of Heaven, is more “down to earth” than we understand it to be.
The Kingdom of God is a real kingdom in which human beings are transformed into sons of God, not by mercy and forgiveness but by actual transformation through the impartation of the Divine Nature.
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
Today there is much ministry but very little witness. In fact, the witness of the Kingdom of God has been destroyed because the churches have understood Divine grace to be an alternative to godly living. The nations, seeing the sin and self-serving of the Christians, do not have a clear picture of the coming of the righteous Kingdom of God to the earth.
The Kingdom of God is practical and understandable. God is “saving” us so we will become like Him in nature, acceptable to Him in our personality and behavior. God accomplishes this by the new birth, and then by growth in the Divine Nature of the Lord Jesus the Christ.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Only Christ, and that which has been prepared in Christ and is an inseparable, integral part of Christ, inherits the Kingdom of God.
Attaining to the First Resurrection
Only the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God and the blood of the cross can enable us to make any headway in the Kingdom of God.
Man, in order to be fully what God intends him to be, must be a son of man (a human) and a son of God. Flesh and blood, ordinary human life, cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The purely human cannot be part of the Divine Kingdom. We must be, as Jesus is, both human and Divine. For the Kingdom of God consists of those in whom Christ has been implanted and the fruit of God produced.
The Church is bringing forth Christ. It is Christ who is being formed in us; not merely Christ-likeness or the image of Christ, as important as our change into Christ’s image is.
The central truth on which everything in the Kingdom of God depends is that Christ is being formed in the Church. We are the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Little is accomplished in the Kingdom of God by removing the saint from the earth, which is his inheritance. Much is accomplished in the Kingdom of God when the saint learns to make the Lord, the most High, his refuge and his habitation. This is why Jesus, in the seventeenth chapter of John, does not pray that the Father take the saints from the world but that He guard them from the evil one.
The Christian salvation is not a preserving of what we are but a changing of what we are. We are to be transformed, and the process of change often is painful. God has a purpose in our pain. If we are not transformed we cannot possibly enter the Kingdom of God, for there is neither sin nor self-seeking in the Kingdom. Following and obeying the Holy Spirit as He leads us through hardship and tribulation brings down our old nature and raises up a new creation. A transformation takes place and we are changed into the image of the Son of God.
The Day of the Lord, the Millennium, the new world wherein dwells righteousness, the peaceable kingdom, will come from within the elect. The lion and the lamb must lie down in peace together in us, meaning that the savage aspect of our personality (which is of God and of the image of God) must be at peace with the meek aspect of our personality (which also is of God and of the image of God). Both of these aspects, the savage and the meek, must be led by a little child. We must become as little children in malice if we would enter the Kingdom of God.
By walking in truth we do not mean we are continuing to believe correct doctrine. To walk in truth is to walk in the Lord Jesus, in the light of His will; to have daily fellowship with God. The only time correctness of doctrine is important is when our relationship with the Lord or our behavior is at issue. Theological knowledge of itself is of little value in the Kingdom of God except as it leads us to the Lord Jesus.
The Lord God requires righteousness of us, not only the righteousness He has imputed (ascribed) to us but also righteous behavior—for the Kingdom of God is in righteous behavior, not in assigned righteousness.
We can call on the name of Christ from now until He comes. But if we do not do what He has commanded, the first resurrection, the resurrection to life and glory, will not be a part of our future. All the theological discussions in the world cannot change the smallest aspect of the spiritual realities of the Kingdom of God.
Attaining to the First Resurrection
The issue of the Kingdom of God is that of the condition of the heart and the manner in which the individual behaves.
The message of the Christian Gospel is identical to that of the oracles of the Hebrew Prophets concerning the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. Christ has come to turn away His elect from Satan and to bring each of us into the Kingdom of God. The issue always concerns the Kingdom of God, the rule of God in Christ in us.
The Continuity of the Testaments
If we would understand the Kingdom of God we must define salvation as our transformation from the image of Satan into the image of Christ, and also our divorce from Satan and our self-will and our entrance into untroubled union with the Father through the Lord Jesus.
We must beware of overemphasizing the external dimension of the Kingdom of God, such as a place or Paradise to which we can go. The Kingdom of God is not a change of where we are but of what and who we are. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a change in location but a change in us. The Kingdom is not a saving of what we are but a slow, painful transformation of what we are.
Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God
Flesh and blood cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Christ is the First of the new creation. Whoever loses his life in the process of becoming the new creation, the chariot of God, will save his life to eternity.
Faith and obedience are associated with patience. There is no virtue more important in the Kingdom of God than that of patience (Revelation 1:9).
Patience is our willingness to persevere until God does for us what He has promised. Saints are made or destroyed in the realm of patience.
The disciple of Christ must endure throughout every tribulation in order to be saved. Patience is required if we are to possess our souls and enter the Kingdom of God. For God’s elect there is a race that must be won.
Patience! Patience! Patience and the Kingdom of God!
If we are to possess our soul we must exercise patience in the prison in which the Lord places us.
Why must we have the Spirit of the fear of the Lord? Apart from the fear of the Lord there is no way in which we can gain and keep a correct perspective on life. The plan of redemption cannot be understood and the Kingdom of God cannot gain ground in the earth apart from an awe of, a respect and reverence for, a genuine fear of, the Lord of Armies.
It is clear from the writings of Paul and Peter that we must not sin, and if we persist in our sinning we stand in danger of being denied entrance into the Kingdom of God. We Christians are judged, and judged more strictly than the people of the world because more grace has been entrusted to us. The Christian and Judgment
If our faith in Jesus does not free us from unrighteous behavior, then we are in clear danger of being gathered out of God’s Kingdom when the Lord returns. Unless our behavior is more righteous than that of the scribes and Pharisees we will not be permitted to remain in the Kingdom of God.
Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed…
Man’s self-love and self-will cannot be tolerated in the Kingdom of God, for self-seeking is the opposite of all that is pure, all that is holy, all that is of Paradise, all that is of the Kingdom. Only those who are willing to become as little children, to be purged of the mountain of selfish ambition, can enter the Kingdom of God.
God is not nearly as interested in our doctrinal correctness as He is in our relationships with people, and our willingness to follow Christ in the work of the Kingdom of God.
The First and Second Resurrections
The spirit of self-will, of self-aggrandizement, must die completely. Not one trace of it is to be found in the Kingdom of God.
The grace of the Kingdom of God is not only the grace of forgiveness but also the grace of authority, the grace of power, the grace of moral transformation. The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in the earth.
Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God
It is useless to attempt to bring Adam into the new creation, into the Kingdom of God. It would be easier to teach a dog to read than to reform Adam so he could partake of the life of Heaven. Adam is the dust of the ground. The new man is from Heaven and is of the life and ways of Heaven. There is no method by which Adam can be brought into the new world of righteousness and eternal life.
God’s answer to the corruption resident in Adam is the death of the cross. Adam must be brought to the cross. God is not attempting to save Adam, to bring him into the Kingdom of God. Flesh and blood cannot possibly inherit the Kingdom.
Christ was the Beginning of the first creation and now He is the Beginning of the new creation, the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God consists of those who have died and been raised again in Christ.
Christ is the Resurrection. Christ is the Life. Christ is the Kingdom of God. As Christ is formed in us the Resurrection is formed in us. As Christ is formed in us the eternal Life from God is formed in us. As Christ is formed in us the Kingdom of God is formed in us.
Attaining to the First Resurrection
Jesus of Nazareth, Christ of God, went about doing good and healing all of Israel who were oppressed by the devil. The first sign to follow the believers in Christ is the casting out of devils. The Son of God always destroys the works of the devil.
The Kingdom of God comes as the power of the anointing of the Spirit of God casts out devils.
The coming of the Spirit of God tears apart the kingdom of darkness. This is the power that abides on Christ—Head and Body.
The interpretation of the Apostle Paul’s doctrine to mean God has introduced to mankind a new plan of salvation by “grace” that excuses people from the penalties of sin and rebellion, with the intention of bringing them into Paradise in their untransformed state, is unscriptural. Such is not the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
The Continuity of the Testaments
In the Kingdom of God there is no hoarding of money, no attempting to gain security, pleasure or achievement apart from the daily word and will of Christ directed toward us, no seeking of an advantage over others.
Today multitudes of the Lord’s people are being led astray by the doctrine that states we can indulge in all the pleasures of this world and then reign with Christ at His appearing. Is this the ancient Gospel of the Kingdom of God? Do you feel any bloody nail prints in this doctrine? We do not. We believe in taking up our cross and following Christ, expecting the approval of God alone.
The Lord God gives us all good things to enjoy. But we are not “home” yet. We are strangers and pilgrims in the present world.
Is your love for Christ white hot? Or has an easy, comfortable way of life caused your zeal to become lukewarm? Are you ready to give your life in the service of Christ if He should so direct?
The Kingdom of God is not the bringing of forgiven people to the spirit realm to live forever but the bringing of transformed personalities in transformed bodies to a new earth to live here forever—in a new world filled with righteousness.
Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God
The army of Christ must be created if the Kingdom of God is to come to the earth.
In order for the Kingdom of God to be installed on the earth there must be two armies: an army of judges, and an army of warriors who execute the judgment. The saints constitute the army of judges. The angels, under Michael the Archangel, constitute the army of warriors.
The change of personages on the spiritual thrones that govern the earth will bring in the Kingdom of God—the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven. The multitude of experiences that keep us seeking God throughout our lifetime are for the purpose of teaching us to rule correctly in Christ under God.
One of the concepts we wish to stress is that of the participation of the saints in the violent installation of the Kingdom of God on the earth. Spiritual maturity on the part of the participants will be necessary. The Day of the Lord, the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth, is based on the coming and service of saints who have been made strong in Christ.
Eternal life is closely identified with the Kingdom of God because the Kingdom of God is the rulership of the immortal saints—those in whom the Life of Christ has been developed and perfected—over the nations of saved peoples of the earth.
God is love and always prefers love as a relationship, except in the case of sin and rebellion against His will.
The rulers of the world govern by force. All they can do is control the bodies of people. On occasion, God rules by force. The ultimate rule of the Kingdom of God is by love, for only love can control the heart of a person. Christ and His saints will govern God’s creatures in love.
The central power of the Kingdom of God is Divine love—love so intense, so fiery, its name is Jealous. It can be satisfied only with total union—the perfect oneness of the lover and the loved. Dominion
Christ lives by, with, and in the Father and the Father in Him. The Father is the Wheel in Christ. Christ is the Man, the Lion, the Ox, and the Eagle, and God is in Him. Christ is the Chariot of God. We are being created in the same image. It is the eternal union of God and man. This is the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is made up of the greatest and the least and all those in between. We are happiest when we allow God to prepare us for the particular role and place in His Kingdom for which He has created us.
The Christian salvation results in a new creation. That which is mortal and corruptible passes away. That which is of Christ enters in and grows to maturity. The new creation inherits all the good of the heavens and all the good of the earth. The new creation is an eternal part of God through Christ. This is the Kingdom of God.
Flesh and blood cannot enter the Kingdom of God. It is only the new creation that can enter the Kingdom of God. In fact, the new creation is the Kingdom of God.
Founded on Righteousness
The Kingdom of God is first, “righteousness.” After that, the Kingdom is “peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Our doctrines have destroyed actual righteousness, setting in its place an imputed righteousness, a righteousness ascribed to us because of Christ’s personal righteousness.
The Destruction of Righteousness
Imputed righteousness is not the Kingdom of God but a provision God has made so faith-filled people may be able to press forward to the righteousness of behavior that is the Kingdom of God.
De Jure and De Facto Salvation
The image of Christ is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control. These are the characteristics of Christ and of the Kingdom of God.
Paul states that those who believe in Christ cannot enter the Kingdom of God while they practice the lusts of their flesh. Is Paul right or wrong?
If our imputed freedom from condemnation were a permanent, unconditional amnesty, holding true while we walked in the flesh in our self-will, the Kingdom of God would be a flimsy structure indeed.
De Jure and De Facto Salvation
The Kingdom of God is destroyed when we state that righteous conduct has no essential place in God’s plan of salvation. The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven.
The Kingdom of God is the infusing of the material realm with the Spirit of Jesus and of those who are His. If the Kingdom of God were not a righteous material realm there would be no reason for the resurrection from the dead. The saints would not be given back their bodies.
The authority and power of righteousness will be issued to us so that we can rule the world in righteousness, enforcing the laws of the Kingdom of God. The nature of the Kingdom of God is first, righteousness (Romans 14:17).
The Kingdom of God is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). The Kingdom of God changes us from unrighteousness, unrest, and misery to righteousness, peace, and joy. The Kingdom is not imputed righteousness, imputed peace, and imputed joy. The Kingdom is not in word but in power. It is real righteousness, real peace, and real joy.
The purpose of the blood atonement and of the remainder of the grace in the Lord Jesus Christ is not to bring into God’s Presence a group of people who are continuing in sin and rebellion. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a paper kingdom, a kingdom in word only.
Entering The Kingdom of Heaven
What is the relationship between the teachings of Christ concerning the Kingdom of God, and the teachings of the Apostles (particularly Paul) concerning salvation through grace?
The relationship is as follows: Christ taught us concerning the righteous conduct that always is required in the Kingdom of God. There is no sin in the Kingdom of God. The walls and gates of the new Jerusalem, the holy city, prevent sin from entering the Presence of God and the Lamb.
If our salvation consisted primarily of forgiveness the Kingdom of God would be a house of cards. There would be no strength in it.
Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed…
If we “accept Christ” and then continue on as we always have, living our own life and waiting to go to Heaven, we have not begun to enter the eternal life of the Kingdom of God. We merely have assumed a theological stance. There is no life in this.
Here is the relationship between the Kingdom of God as preached by Christ, and grace as preached by the Apostles of the Lamb. Grace is the Divine Virtue given us so we may be able to enter the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God. The Divine Virtue teaches us and enables us to begin to obey the laws of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is first, righteous behavior, then peace, then joy—all in the Holy Spirit. Such is the Kingdom of God.
PARTICIPANTS IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Called, Chosen, and Faithful
Some of the greatest heroes of faith of the Kingdom of God will be those who bear witness during the closing days of the present age.
Aspects of the Resurrection of the Saints
Many are called into the Kingdom of God but few are chosen to be members of the Bride of the Lamb. Among the members of the Kingdom of God there are some who bear Christ thirtyfold, some who bear Christ sixtyfold, some who bear Christ a hundredfold. Then there are believers who are saved as by fire, receiving no reward. Their works, their inheritance, and much of their personality is burned away in order that their spirit may be saved.
We enter the gates of salvation by receiving our Lord, Christ. Then, through His grace, we press forward into the Kingdom of God. The extent to which we gain the Kingdom determines our inheritance, our status, our opportunities for fellowship with God and for service, throughout the ages to come.
Attaining to the Out-resurrection
God’s rulers were (are) all known to Him from the beginning of the world. Each comes into the world at a specific point in time and through the circumstances of his life is molded into the chosen vessel of service. Some people are born into the world for the purpose of being made rulers in the Kingdom of God. They were chosen to be of first rank in the plan of God before God framed the world.
We are not to seek to be more important than others in the Kingdom of God. Whomever God chooses to exalt shall be exalted in the Kingdom.
No one is great in the Kingdom of God except as God has chosen him or her for the post. To sit on Jesus’ right hand and on His left will be given to those for whom such exalted glory has been prepared (Matthew 20:23).
If we will keep the Word of Christ faithfully the day will come when the Word of Christ begins to keep us. The Father and the Son will come to us and our desires will be changed from those that are opposed to Christ’s will into those that are in harmony with Christ’s intentions. We shall begin to do the will of God by nature. This is the coming of the Kingdom of God to us and the fulfillment of the new covenant.
If we are not faithful in the lesser we assuredly will not be entrusted with the greater. If we cannot rule now we will be ruled in the world to come, for there can be no disorder in the Kingdom of God. Also, if we are not faithful in this life we will receive lashes because of our laziness and our disinterest in the establishing of the Kingdom of God on the earth.
If we are not faithful in the business of the world system we will not be faithful in the business of the Kingdom of God.God watches our behavior in the world to see if we are faithful in worldly responsibilities. If we are, He will consider entrusting us with the eternal riches of the Kingdom.
We can choose to occupy our time and energy with accumulating material goods or we can occupy our time and energy with seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Every human being born on the earth must make this decision because we cannot seek both material goods and the Kingdom of God.
Many—perhaps most—of God’s people have little idea what their roles are in the Body of Christ, in the Kingdom of God. There may be many excuses for such ignorance, but the Kingdom suffers as a result. It is important in the present hour that each saint begin to do something about his or her responsibility in the Kingdom.
- “I have a wife and family.”
- “I am too young.”
- “I am too old.”
- “I am not trained.”
- “I am too busy!”
- “I will do the Lord’s will when I retire.”
On and on the excuses go but God accepts none of them. The point is, we are to seek first the Kingdom of God. Otherwise our crown will be removed from our head and placed on the head of another who is faithful to the Words of Christ.
Crucified with Christ
There is no way around the cross. Whoever is unwilling to forsake all, and to take up his cross and follow Jesus, is unworthy of the Kingdom of God. He cannot be a disciple.
The Cross and the New Creation
All of us have ideas concerning our own worth: our loyalty to our friends, our intelligence, our talents—even our ability to work in the Kingdom of God. But all that is gain to us is loss for Christ. Only He is the Kingdom of God. We must decrease and He must increase. We are to live by the power of His resurrection. We are to share in His sufferings. In all things and in all ways we are being made Him—an eternally inseparable part of Him.
We Christians do not uphold God or the work of the Kingdom of God. God upholds us. When we commence the Christian pilgrimage we have a grip on God, or at least we think we do. But little by little God works matters around until He is gripping us. The transition from our grip to God’s grip occurs as we continually are being brought down to death because of the circumstances through which the Spirit of God leads us.
At first we may be able to fight our way through to victory without too much trouble. But sooner or later the problems become too strong for us. God is gentle with us as He leads us to the realization there is nothing good in us. It requires a period of time before we learn how to “let go and let God.”
The Christian who would avoid suffering, who “escapes” every time the Lord puts him in “prison,” is preventing his own resurrection. There is no other way. Either we take up our cross and follow our Lord and Master or else we lose the first resurrection from the dead. There will be no exceptions. We must “lose” our life so Christ can live in us. Christ, and only Christ, inherits the Kingdom of God. When we insist on “serving” God according to our own desires, then King Self remains on the throne of our personality.
Attaining to the First Resurrection
The cross is the center, the core of the Kingdom of God. Every member of the Kingdom of God is to view the creation from the cross. The saint does not seek his own will but the will of God. The cross ensures that the will of God is done in the Kingdom of God. Being crucified with Christ purifies the believer of self-will. The cross of the saint destroys self-will, personal ambition, fleshly enthusiasm, self-centeredness, self-love from his personality.
The Cross and the New Creation
Being “dead to sin” means we have been crucified with Christ, that we judge the manifestations of sin in us as being unfit for the Kingdom of God and proceed to drive them out through the Holy Spirit, and that we have chosen to offer ourselves as a bondslave to Christ in order that His will may be performed in our daily life.
The believer who forces his way out of God’s prison may gratify his flesh for a season but his end will be grief, disillusionment, anguish, disappointment, loss of fruitfulness, loss of authority, loss of the Kingdom of God.
The Cross and the New Creation
It is we who are mourning now, who are bearing the reproach of the cross, who will laugh in the Day of Christ. Those who insist on living in the world, attempting to have the security and comfort of the world system and the Kingdom of God at the same time, will lose God’s blessing in both. They will weep in that day.
The Continuity of the Testaments
A firstfruits of our personality, our born-again spiritual nature, already has entered the Kingdom of God. Now we are to interact with the Divine Life of Jesus until all of our inner personality has experienced the death of the cross and the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus. It is a daily death and a daily resurrection. It is the forming of Christ in us.
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
Turn Away from Iniquity
The believers who “accept” Christ but who do not turn away from their sins and self-seeking are not gaining the Kingdom of God.
The Continuity of the Testaments
A wall of defense is being constructed now in each saint. There must be formed in us a terrible resistance against sin, for we are being created the first line of defense of the Kingdom of God. The first line of defense is Zion—the fortress city that guards Jerusalem.
We enter the new covenant as we obey the commandments of the Apostles. We must obey the commandments of the Apostles until the new moral nature, Christ in us, takes control of our behavior. If we do not keep the commandments of the Apostles, Christ will not be formed in us. In this case we will have made the grace of God of no effect as far as our entering the Kingdom of God is concerned.
We must confess our sins as sin. We are not to evade the seriousness of our behavior or protect our pride. We are to denounce such behavior as sinful, as of the kingdom of Satan, as unworthy of the Kingdom of God.
The lusts of the flesh keep us from our inheritance by bringing the judgment of God upon us and by warring against the new creation, the Kingdom of God, that is in us.
Being redeemed from the hand of the enemy requires that the evil in us be judged. We have been forgiven totally but there remains all manner of darkness in our personality. In order for us to be bought into the Kingdom of God the spiritual darkness in us must be judged and removed.
Each of us must choose to worship Christ and to resist the devil. Sin has no place in the Kingdom of God and is to have no place in the Christian personality. We, through the Spirit, are to put to death the deeds of our body, crucifying our flesh with its perverted, lawless cravings.
Unleavened Bread is representative of repentance, of putting away sin. Whenever the Kingdom of God is preached correctly the command to repent is included. To become a Christian we must turn away from the world, from Satan, from the lusts of our flesh, and from our self-love and self-seeking.
We are living in the greatest of all hours. This is the day in which many can become first in the Kingdom of God. It is possible for us to attain to the fullness of life and glory. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily distracts us, and press forward to the full possession of the fullness of the eternal Life in the Lord Jesus the Christ.
The hope that we will not reap what we sow is definitely not according to the Scriptures. The law of sowing and reaping is a basic law of the Kingdom of God. Grace cannot make this law null and void. Divine grace does not change what we reap but what we sow.
If we do not repent of the ways of the world and of our lustful behavior we cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
One in Union with Christ
Coming forth from the waters of baptism represents our birth into the Kingdom of God. It is an expression of union with the resurrected Lord.
Man, in order to be fully what God intends him to be, must be a son of man (a human) and a son of God. Flesh and blood, ordinary human life, cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The purely human cannot be part of the Divine Kingdom. We must be, as Jesus is, both human and Divine.
The Church is bringing forth Christ. It is Christ who is being formed in us; not merely Christ-likeness or the image of Christ, as important as our change into Christ’s image is. The central truth on which everything in the Kingdom of God depends is that Christ is being formed in the Church. We are the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
To be born of the Spirit of God, having the Seed of God implanted in us, is to be of the Divine Nature with all that is included in Divinity. There must be a clear understanding of this point. True man is truly human and truly Divine. The Kingdom of God consists of those who are both human and Divine. Unless an individual is born both of water, signifying natural birth, and of the Spirit, signifying Divine birth, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). Flesh and blood cannot enter the Kingdom of God (I Corinthians 15:50).
There only is one true Seed of Abraham by promise. That one Seed is Christ and all of those who are part of Christ. There is no other seed of Abraham that will inherit the Kingdom of God. The believer who deviates from this position is going contrary to the Apostle Paul.
Those who are called to be saints, that is, who are of the true Israel of God, are the members of Christ’s Body. They are called to reveal Christ’s glory in a special way. They are the ruling priesthood of the world to come. They are the center of government of the Kingdom of God. They are the eternal Temple of God.
When Jesus appears, those who are hidden in Him will appear in glory with Him. Then the foundations of the earth will be laid, which is the second task of the Servant of the Lord. The Kingdom of God will be set up on the earth as the reigning authority and power, and all the nations of the saved will be shepherded with a rod of iron wielded by Christ and His saints.
The Divine judgments on men and angels that will take place in the future will be administered by God’s elect, His saints. The saints will be God’s judges forever, maintaining order in the creation, angels and the nations of the saved being subject to their decisions. It is not possible for the saints to rule in judgment until they have been created in Christ’s image and brought into union with the Father through Christ. The saints, as they are filled with the Spirit of God, will decide who is permitted to enter the Kingdom of God and who is held under judgment. It is a terrible authority and responsibility.
The true Christian life is one of patient perseverance throughout the numerous tribulations by which we enter the Kingdom of God. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. It is by prolonged testings and refining fires that we are prepared to be coheirs with Christ, that we are made ready for our positions of power and authority over the nations of the earth.
Attaining to the First Resurrection
As soon as Christ has been formed in the saints the Kingdom of God will come to the earth. In the present hour the Holy Spirit is adding people to the Church and also building the spiritual quality of the Church. When the Body of Christ attains the desired level of maturity and unity, the Head of the Body will appear. Then God through Christ—Head and Body—will reach out to the nations of the earth. This is the Kingdom of God, of Heaven, that is at hand.
Made Perfect Through Suffering
The instruction and events that we experience during our Christian discipleship are designed to teach us the ways of the Lord. They are to prepare us for life in the Kingdom of God.
The tribulations through which we enter the Kingdom of God are part of the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, the reconciling of us to God’s righteous and holy Nature.
In order to become part of the ruling family, of the Kingdom of God, we must become one with Christ as He is One with the Father. In order to become one with Christ we must experience the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.
The sufferings we experience in Christ are a judgment on the sins of our flesh and are a necessary part of the process of salvation. It is through suffering that we are made worthy of the Kingdom of God.
From Justification to Glorification
We must through much tribulation enter the Kingdom of God. The Bride must make herself ready through the grace of Christ given to her for this purpose.
The saints are given into the hand of the enemy until God sees that they are worthy of the Kingdom of God.
A willingness to suffer and the determination to overcome all opposition are required of all who are elected to rule in the Kingdom of God.
Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God
The sufferings that come upon us are the judgment of God on our personality. It is through these sufferings that we are changed and made worthy of the Kingdom of God. Our change and our worthiness depend on our response to the persecutions and tribulations. If we murmur, complain, grumble, blame people through whom we think our trouble is coming, as did Israel in the wilderness, we will not be found worthy of the Kingdom. We will not be changed in personality. We will not share in the Kingdom of Christ unless we continue through the wilderness patiently and joyously until the Lord returns.
We have been called to enter the Kingdom of God through much tribulation. We must suffer, as God directs, so we may be worthy to take our place with the saints of all ages (II Thessalonians 1:5).
The disciple of Christ must endure throughout every tribulation in order to be saved. Patience is required if we are to possess our souls and enter the Kingdom of God. For God’s elect there is a race that must be won.
He who endures to the end shall be saved. Many who live in the last days will be first in the Kingdom of God.
Apart from a sternly disciplined effort it is not possible for the believer to please God or to march in the front ranks of those who are commissioned to bring the Kingdom of God into the earth.
Whenever we attempt to escape the suffering, escape the cross, escape the tribulations through which we must enter the Kingdom of God, we open ourselves to deception.
We must be made worthy of the first resurrection and of the Kingdom of God, through suffering.
Attaining to the First Resurrection
We are not to shrink back. Once we set our hand to the plow we are not to look back. The Lord warned us that if we look back we are not fit for the Kingdom of God. Lot’s wife looked back.
SALVATION
INTRODUCTION TO SALVATION
According to the Scriptures, to be “saved” is to journey in faith and confidence throughout our lifetime, obeying God each day.
What does it mean to be “saved”? It means to continue in confidence in Christ each day of our discipleship. We are not “saved” in the scriptural sense until we arrive at the rest of God. “Rest,” as used in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, means rest from our enemies. Through Christ we have overcome every enemy of our soul and have gained the moral Character of the Lord and are resting in the Father’s perfect will. This “rest” is our Canaan, our land of promise.
We do not partake of Christ, and consequently do not find rest in the Person of the Father, unless we steadfastly continue in belief and obedience to the end of our life on earth.
Does the New Testament actually teach this?
For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, (Hebrews 3:14)
We are made a part of Christ only if we keep moving forward each day in belief and obedience. This is the message of the Book of Hebrews.
We have no firm basis in the Scriptures to hope we will go anywhere when we die except to the area where people behave as we do. We will be “gathered to our people.” It is in the present life that we demonstrate our faith by repenting and truly serving the Lord Jesus. If we do this we will be saved.
To be “saved” is to be preserved from destruction during the Day of the Lord and to enter the new world of the Kingdom of God.
Coming into union with Christ (the marriage of the Lamb) must take place now—each day of our Christian discipleship. An immediate, practical effort must be made to seek the Lord’s will in every aspect of our life.
Can you see the important difference between these two understandings of salvation? If Heaven is our goal, our principal task is to wait patiently until we go there. If union with the Father through Christ is our goal, our principal task is to devote every day of our discipleship to the attaining of this union. We must begin the process of transformation now. We must become a new creation if we are to come into eternal fellowship with the Divine Fire of Israel.
DEFINING SALVATION
More than Forgiveness; More than a “Ticket To Heaven”; Salvation Is Moral Transformation
Salvation includes more than forgiveness. Forgiveness does not fulfill God’s Kingdom purposes in us. God’s problem of rebellious creatures is not solved when we are forgiven. We are not suitable as a ruler of the world to come merely on the basis of forgiveness.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
Salvation is not a ticket to Heaven, it is a change of personality.
Salvation is moral transformation. Apart from moral transformation their is no salvation.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
The Christian salvation is not limited to forgiveness. Salvation includes transformation. Salvation is our deliverance from the person and ways of Satan and our entrance into the moral image and Person of Christ. Forgiveness is permission to enter the plan of salvation.
Judgment Begins with the Household of God
When we present the Christian salvation as primarily the forgiving of people we miss the point. The Christian salvation indeed does include the forgiving of people but with a view to their correction, their change from the ways of Satan to the ways of God.
The current definition of salvation presented by Christian preachers and teachers is escape from Hell and eternal residence in Paradise. We escape Hell, when we die, and go to Heaven and make our eternal home there by confessing Christ as Savior. When we confess Christ as Savior our sins are forgiven so that God will bring us to Heaven and not cast us into Hell when we die.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
It is true rather that the Christian salvation is the Divine plan for changing sinners into righteous people so they do not belong in Hell.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
The Christian redemption is not primarily the forgiveness of our sins. Rather, the Christian salvation is our deliverance from Satan, our personal transformation, and our complete, restful union with God through Christ.
Salvation is moral transformation. This is what salvation is. It has no reference to Heaven. The statement “salvation is moral transformation” does not mean if we behave righteously we will be saved. It means, rather, that the righteous behavior itself is the salvation.
Salvation is the reconstruction of the human being according to the pattern of God’s image. Without such transformation grace can become an empty form, an excuse for sinful behavior, a license to practice immorality. If the life is not noticeably being reconstructed, how do we know that the person actually has come to Christ? By his words? The Christian testimony consists of more than words.
The Christian salvation includes the overcoming of sin through the Lord Jesus the Christ.
The Christian salvation is the process of gaining eternal life.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
The Christian salvation is the overcoming, through Christ, of Satan, the world, and our own personality so we can obey the three laws of the Kingdom of God, thus becoming eligible to receive eternal life and able also to participate in the other aspects of personal transformation set forth in the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation.
The “things that accompany salvation” are the actions of a godly life in Christ.
The one trustworthy sign of sincere faith in Christ is godliness of behavior. Apart from godly behavior there is no salvation, because godly behavior is salvation—salvation from sin.
Many today receive Jesus only because they desire to escape torment when they die, not because they love the Lord or His environment. Salvation is not meant to be a ticket by which we escape torment, it is a conversion of our choice of environment, our personality, and our knowledge of the Lord.
There are two fundamental misconceptions in the traditional Christian understanding of salvation: (1) the goal of redemption is eternal residence in Heaven, in the spirit Paradise; and (2) salvation is a “ticket” to Paradise rather than what it is in actuality—the wisdom and power to become free from the way of sin and death and to enter the way of eternal life, the way of the Spirit of God.
The true salvation of the Lord is marriage—a union of God and the saint. The believer dies to the Law of Moses in order that he may be married to Christ. Marriage to Christ is the strictest bondage and the most glorious freedom available to mankind.
The Christian salvation does not release us from the common obligation on mankind to please God by our conduct. Rather, the Christian salvation forgives us and then sends us on our way rejoicing, now possessing the wisdom and power to overcome the evil in the world.
The Christian salvation is moral and character transformation. This is what salvation is. This is what the new covenant is. To define grace to mean that righteous works are unrelated to our salvation misses the entire point of what God is performing through the new covenant.
One area of ignorance has to do with the concept of “going to Heaven.” We are not saved to “go to Heaven.” Salvation has to do with deliverance from the person and works of Satan, being created in the image of God, and coming into union with God through Christ. When we make going to Heaven our goal, and perceive the blood of Jesus as our ticket to Heaven, we cannot understand the Christian redemption.
The Christian redemption includes the forgiveness of our sins but is characterized primarily by the raising of us from the death of sin into the life of righteous, holy, and obedient conduct. When we conceive of salvation as a “ticket” to Heaven we are missing God’s purpose in bringing us to Christ.
The distinction between the rule of the Kingdom of God and going to Heaven is important. It may be true that the current deplorable condition of the Christian Church is due to the prevailing ignorance of the nature of salvation. Salvation is the Divine program for establishing the Person and rule of God in the personalities of the elect, not the transfer of unchanged human beings from the surface of the earth to an area set aside in the spirit realm, in the domain of bodiless spirits.
The Christian redemption is the transformation of people from the image of Satan to the image of Christ, not the transfer of people from the earth to Heaven. Salvation has to do with the Kingdom of Heaven, not with our removal to the place termed “Heaven,” although there certainly is a place called Heaven.
The Kingdom of God is God in Christ, through and with the saints, governing the nations of saved peoples of the earth. The Kingdom of God is the end result of the Judaic-Christian salvation.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
There is no salvation apart from the creation of holiness in the heart and life because that is what salvation is. Salvation is deliverance from the power of Satan and the development of union with God through Jesus. If we are not being transformed morally we are not being saved. If we are not becoming healthier we are not being healed. It is as straightforward as that!
What we Christians must come to understand is that the Lord God is interested in righteousness and obedience. We do not accept Christ in order to avoid punishment for our behavior but in order to gain the opportunity to repent and begin to do the things that are pleasing to God. The salvation that is in Christ enables us to be accepted of God by turning away from our former manner of living, by embarking on the program of transformation into righteous behavior.
What do we mean, “begin to be saved?” We mean that salvation is the changing of us from the likeness of the old fallen nature to the likeness of the righteous Christ. In the meanwhile the blood of God’s Lamb keeps on covering and forgiving us so that we may remain without condemnation.
The work of salvation has not been accomplished in us when our sins are forgiven. The work of salvation has not been completed in us until we have been redeemed totally from the authority, power, and effects of sin and have been brought into the image of Christ and into perfect union with God through Christ. “Salvation” is synonymous with deliverance. To “save” is to deliver from Satan and to bring into union with God.
Under the new covenant, God not only forgives our sins but by His power He removes the presence of sin from us, creates Christ in us, and fills us with His Presence. This is grace. This is redemption. This is salvation. This is deliverance. This is glory.
THE GOAL AND PURPOSE OF SALVATION
“Not Where We Go but What We Become”
Precisely what is the Divine salvation (redemption)? What is the goal of salvation? The current model of redemption portrays the blood of Jesus as the means of keeping people out of Hell and admitting them to Heaven to live forever. While this is true in an elementary sense it is so simplistic as to be seriously misleading.
Nowhere in the New Testament is the salvation that is offered through the Lord Jesus Christ described as deliverance from Hell nowhere! The wicked are always assigned to Hell. The wicked belong in Hell. The reason that nowhere in the New Testament is the salvation that is offered through the Lord Jesus Christ described as deliverance from Hell is that this is not the nature or purpose of the Christian salvation.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
The common understanding of the work of salvation is that we will be removed from the world of pain and fear and brought to a different world (Heaven) where there is no pain or fear. The scriptural description of the work of salvation is that we are being removed from the person and power of Satan and brought into the Person and power of God in Christ. Whether we are in the world or in Heaven has little to do with the plan of salvation, with the work of redemption.
The goal of Christianity is not where we go but what we become. The goal of our redemption is the forming in us of the eternal Tabernacle of God, the holy city, the Wife of the Lamb. The Christian salvation is God-centered, not man-centered. The Holy Spirit is building something for the pleasure and use of God. Our pleasure and benefit are secondary in importance.
The purpose of salvation is not that we go to Heaven but that we fulfill the many needs that God has, such as a temple for Himself, a bride for the Lamb, righteous priests and rulers to govern the nations of the saved, and several other roles and services. None of these roles and services can be performed by a human being until he or she has been changed into the moral image of the Lord Jesus and brought into complete, restful union with the Father through Christ.
Forgiveness, life, liberty, obedience, Christ’s image, the fullness of God—all dwelling in a body like that of the glorified body of the Lord Jesus: this is the fullness of salvation, the transformation of what we are in personality and in behavior.
The spiritual dimension of the Kingdom of God has been emphasized for so long a period of time the Christians have come to believe that the goal of the Christian salvation is to make one’s eternal home in the spiritual Heaven.
The land of promise, Canaan, the inheritance, the goal of our salvation, has an internal dimension and an external dimension. The internal dimension is the change in the man. The external dimension is the change in the man’s environment.
But eternal residence in Paradise is not the goal of the Christian salvation.
The traditional understanding of the goal of the Church, of the Christian discipleship, is eternal residence in Paradise. But our goal is not to go to Heaven to live forever. Our goal is to learn to live in the Spirit that is from Heaven, from God, so that when the Lord Jesus returns to earth we may return with Him in the fullness of the glory and power of Heaven. The goal of the Christian salvation is not a place. Our goal is the eternal Life that Christ Is. Our goal is to dwell in God, in the glory and joy of His Presence. Our final destination is the earth, for the Kingdom of God will be established on the earth.
The difference between viewing the Christian salvation as a ticket that removes the wicked from Hell, and viewing the Christian salvation as the re-creating of the human personality so that the individual can be received of the Father, is total. The one is not scriptural and is destructive. The other is scriptural and results in all the rewards and blessing we associate with being saved.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
If the true Christian salvation is the extending of an amnesty to us so that our sins are overlooked, with the intent of bringing us to Paradise to live useless lives in an environment that presents no challenge to our characters, then the bringing forth of a new, godly creation in our personalities may be desirable but it is not essential. If the true Christian salvation is the building of an eternal house for the God of Heaven, a tabernacle of glory that will serve for eternity as the light of the nations of saved peoples of the earth, then the bringing forth of a new, godly creation in our personalities is necessary for the gaining of our inheritance.
Because of our past experience as Christians it is almost impossible to think of “being saved” as moral transformation. Perhaps our generation will never be able to think of being saved apart from going to Heaven. But as long as we think in terms of eternal residence in Heaven as being the goal of redemption, confusing the place termed Heaven with eternal life and the Kingdom of God, we never will truly understand the Kingdom of God or the Christian salvation.
The traditional understanding of salvation is that we are trying to live in such a manner that we will be eligible to go to Heaven when we die, and that if we profess faith in Christ we will be admitted to Heaven. The hope of Heaven has blessed the believers throughout the centuries of the Christian Era. Is there a Paradise in the spirit realm to which the righteous go when they die? Yes there is, according to our understanding.
What it will be like to live in the spirit Paradise we do not know, for the Scriptures do not have much to say about this phase of our life. The Scriptures stress the return of the Lord and the resurrection from the dead. Nevertheless, we are persuaded with Paul that to depart and be with the Lord is better than life on earth.
What is the goal, the end result, the “Heaven” of the Christian salvation?
The purpose of the Judaic-Christian salvation is to solve the original problem of disobedience.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
God’s plan of redemption through Christ is able to transform every one of our actions, our words, and our thoughts, until they are acceptable to Him. This moral transformation is the Divine salvation, the Divine redemption.
A successful life is one in which the image of God is created. If the image of God is not created during our pilgrimage in the world, the full benefit of salvation did not come to us.
We are to obey God’s voice, becoming a treasure to God above all other people. We are a kingdom of priests, being prepared by the Lord to govern and intercede for the nations of the earth. This is the purpose of the Judaic-Christian salvation.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
The goal of salvation presented in the Scriptures is eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
Righteous, holy, obedient conduct flows from eternal life and leads to eternal life. Eternal life is not the result of the doctrine to which we subscribe. Belief is not salvation but leads to salvation. When we receive Jesus we receive Life because He is Life. Receiving Jesus means receiving the Person of the living Jesus so we are enabled to turn away from the behaviors that produce death.
The end of the true Divine salvation always is righteous behavior and the worship of God. Residence in Paradise is the natural result of behavior acceptable to the Lord God. To have sinners in Paradise would be to change Paradise into Hell, because our Lord always will send tormenting fire on sinful behavior whether on the earth or in the spirit realm. The purpose of the Divine grace is not to provide a legal foundation whereby a holy God can dwell in peace with unholy people.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
The Lord Jesus came to bring us eternal life in spirit, in soul, and in body. The goal of the Christian salvation is the redemption, the adoption, the resurrection of the mortal body.
The spiritual, new-covenant fulfillment of Canaan is the resurrection to eternal life. Our goal as Christians is to attain to the first resurrection, the resurrection of the victorious saints. The Christian salvation is the achieving of eternal life.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
It is important that the believers come to understand that the goal of the Christian salvation is not to bring us to a place called “Heaven” but is rather the total transformation of what we are so we can dwell in untroubled rest in Christ in God.
Passing into the spirit realm, as into a place, is not what our heart yearns for. We are longing for love, joy, peace and perfect righteousness. The spirit realm in and of itself cannot produce love, joy, peace, or righteousness.
The end result of salvation is not an aimless wandering in a spiritual paradise not described in the Scriptures, a paradise of which we gain glimpses only through the testimonies of dying saints. Rather, our Heaven, our rest, the goal of our pilgrimage, is set forth boldly by the Hebrew Prophets. If you desire to know where the Holy Spirit is leading you, read Isaiah; read Ezekiel; read Zechariah. God has not concealed our destiny from us. He has portrayed our goal in the Scriptures.
The rest, the inheritance into which we have to fight our way, is set forth in the sixtieth chapter of the Book of Isaiah, and again in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of the Book of Revelation.
The belief that eternal residence in Heaven is the goal of salvation is widely held in Christianity. However, such is not the emphasis of the Scriptures. It is our tradition and it has had an unfavorable influence on the spiritual maturity of the believers.
The entire Scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament, are one revelation of Christ and His Kingdom. They are one whole. They speak of restoration. They proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. They tell of the restoring to mankind of the Presence of God and the beauty of Paradise—of all that was lost in the beginning. This is the meaning of the term, redemption.
Christ Himself Is eternal Life. Life is Christ. This is where the preaching of Heaven misses the mark. Our goal is not eternal residence in Heaven. Our goal is to become part of Christ, part of Eternal Life.
There indeed is a spiritual Heaven. Heaven is the present home of God, of Christ, of the saints, and of the elect angels. When they die, the godly go to the spirit Paradise to wait for the Day of Resurrection. However, the personality of the Christian is not, by the Scriptures, considered to be “alive” until his body has received eternal life. The Christian will be made alive at the parousia, the Presence of the Lord (I Corinthians 15:22,23).
After having spent time in Heaven waiting for the Day of Christ, we will be disappointed in that Day if we have not laid up treasures of eternal life. Heaven is a place of rest for the saints, and it is conceivable that some ministry and preparation for the Day of Christ take place there. But the goal of our Christian discipleship is not to go to Heaven, as marvelous as that experience doubtless will be. The goal is to acquire eternal life so when the Day of the Lord comes we will be filled with an abundance of the true riches, with the fullness of eternal life in spirit, in soul, and in body.
The Release of the Material Creation
THE NATURE OF SALVATION
Rooted in Judaism
The original Body of Christ was constituted of Jews. At what point did the Body of Christ become Gentile in character? Christianity is a Jewish religion. Salvation is of the Jews. Elect Gentiles have been added by the determination of God.
“Salvation by grace,” as presented by current Christian pastors and teachers, has become unrelated to the teaching of the Scriptures, both Old Testament and New. The resulting confusion has rendered impossible any accurate interpretation of the bulk of the Scriptures, has changed the vision of the Kingdom of God to a flight to Heaven, has erected a wall of separation between the elect Jews and the elect Gentiles, and has destroyed the moral character of the Christians.
Salvation always is of the Jews. The Gospel is the children’s bread and belongs to the Jew first.
Christianity is not a Gentile salvation, it is a Jewish salvation to which selected Gentiles have been added. Is this too much for us to accept?
Salvation came into being in the city of Jerusalem. Christ rose from the dead in the city of Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit fell first in the city of Jerusalem. The first great revival, as described in the second chapter of Acts, took place in the city of Jerusalem. The Apostles were Jews. The writers of the New Testament were Jews. The names in the foundations of the wall and on the gates of the new Jerusalem are all those of Jews. Christianity primarily is a Jewish salvation, and after that a Gentile salvation.
Originates with God
Salvation is of the Lord. God saves whom He will, when He will. Our part is to serve faithfully in the capacity assigned to us. God then saves according to His own foreknowledge, mercy, and power.
There is no way in which we can contradict or minimize the full role of predestination and calling in our salvation without violating the clear teaching of the Scriptures. It is the Lord God of Heaven who comes to man and draws him to Himself.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
Neither Jew nor Gentile can come to Christ until he or she is called to do so by the Father. The Father must draw him or her. We see that salvation is by grace through faith, and even our faith must come to us as a gift from God.
The salvation of the Lord cannot possible proceed from the fallen nature of man. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
Salvation and eternal life are found only on Mount Zion. The mountains of Bashan, of human endeavor, strive in vain to give life. Eternal life comes only from the Father through the Son, the Lord Jesus the Christ.
Isaac was not the seed of Abraham because he was born from Abraham but because God had promised Abraham he would be born. The inheritance comes by the spiritual promise, not by the natural birth. The Divine salvation is not by flesh and blood but by the foreordained grace of God in Christ.
Our inheritance, our redemption, our salvation, our restoration, is reserved in heaven for us. It is ready to be revealed in the last days.
Always an Opportunity; Conditional; A Change in Character Not Location
Salvation from guilt to forgiveness is given us on the basis of the shed blood of our sin-offering—Christ. When we accept the atonement made by Him our sins are laid on Him and we bear the guilt of them no longer. This takes place wherever and whenever the Gospel is preached to us.
Salvation from spiritual death to eternal life comes to us as we receive Christ. Jesus is eternal Life and the only eternal Life. As we enter to a greater extent into Him, and He enters to a greater extent into us, we grow in eternal life.
The Christian salvation is the gift of an opportunity. Eternal life is the gift of an opportunity. It is important to understand this in order to enter the salvation that is in Christ.
Forgiveness is not to be regarded as complete salvation. It is rather the authorization to begin the program of salvation. If our salvation consisted primarily of forgiveness the Kingdom of God would be a house of cards. There would be no strength in it. The purpose of forgiveness is to make it possible for us to approach God with a clear conscience so that we, through the virtue Christ supplies and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, can begin to be saved.
The theologians hasten to proclaim: Salvation is unconditional. You cannot destroy your relationship with God by your behavior. You shall not surely die! What is the source of this blindness? The Scriptures state that we Christians, like the Israelites, will die in the wilderness if we do not continue serving the Lord.
Today’s Christian theologians are misinterpreting the message of the Book of Hebrews. In their attempt to prove salvation is unconditional, that there is nothing a believer can do which will place his salvation in jeopardy, they are wrenching the Scriptures so they will mean what they want them to mean.
Is the Christian Salvation Conditional?
What meaning does such a belief have in light of the fact that salvation is a transformation of what we are in personality and behavior? Are we saying when we are forgiven and have received a portion of eternal life as a pledge we will enter the glory of the kingdom without having been transformed in personality? It is our transformation that is the Kingdom!
The salvation, the eternal life, the glory, the joy, the peace, the redemption in Christ are always an opportunity. God gives to us, through Christ, the authority, wisdom, and power to attain salvation, the Life of Christ, glory, joy, peace, sonship, the fullness of redemption. It is what we do with this opportunity that determines whether or not we actually gain glory, joy, and eternal life.
Current Christian teaching implies that the Christian salvation, at least in the present life, is ninety-nine percent forgiveness. However, to forgive an individual and then not to transform him is to leave him unprepared for the new world of righteousness. Whether or not God has forgiven him, he still cannot be brought into a redeemed environment. To do so, as we have stated, is to invite disaster.
By inferring from Paul’s doctrine that every aspect of redemption is imputed we have destroyed the program of the Christian salvation. By far, most of the benefits of our redemption are not just ascribed to us. Rather, they are developed in us when we act in cooperation with the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit as He imparts to us the things of Christ.
Righteous conduct is the doctrine of the entire Scriptures (under the new covenant it is righteous conduct resulting from our union with Christ, not from our own efforts apart from Christ).
Keep in mind that our righteous behavior does not earn salvation. Rather, righteous behavior results from salvation. Where there is no growth in righteousness, no salvation is taking place.
John Seventeen
Paul’s doctrine of ascribed righteousness can be distorted to mean that the Christian salvation is an undemanding gift and requires no action on our part in order to gain the values contained in it.
Good works are the fruit, not the tree of the Divine salvation.
Imputed, ascribed righteousness cannot be seen. This is ridiculous, but it reveals the lengths to which Christian teachers will go to prove that the Christian salvation is a legal state in the mind of God and not an actual transformation of the character of the believers.
The Scriptures teach that salvation is conditional. The scholars state that salvation is unconditional. It is time for a reformation of our thinking.
Is the Christian Salvation Conditional?
To hold that we are saved apart from deliverance from the person and works of Satan is to claim we are saved apart from being saved. Salvation is our deliverance from the person and works of Satan and our union with God. The person who remains in the bondage of the devil has not been saved from sin.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
We reveal whether we are candidates for salvation or for Hell by the choices we make concerning our environment. It is folly to speak of being “saved by grace,” with the idea of being accepted in the spirit Paradise when we die, while we still love the way of sinners.
The belief that the Christian salvation only or primarily is escape from Hell is a very weak concept of God and of the salvation He has provided for those who love and serve Him. The truth is, the Christian salvation offers an awesome inheritance to every person who will press forward in faith.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
Adam and Eve were not in Heaven in the beginning. This is very important for us to understand, because salvation is redemption. Redemption is the restoring to a person what has been taken from him by some means. To redeem a person or thing is to pay the price of redemption and then to return the person or thing to his or its original condition. Since Adam and Eve did not fall from Heaven, redemption does not return them to Heaven. Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on the earth. The Divine redemption will restore mankind to Paradise on the earth.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
“Going to Heaven” is not what John the Baptist, or Christ, or the Apostle Paul, or any of the other first-century apostles and evangelists meant when they cried out in the streets concerning salvation and the soon coming of the King. The good news of the Christian redemption is not that of “going to Heaven.” The good news of the Kingdom of God is that of salvation in the Day of the Lord, of being spared the wrath of God, of entering eternal life when Christ returns to set up His Kingdom on the earth. This is what was preached by the Apostles of the Lamb.
It is important to speak as the Scriptures speak. The phrase “go to Heaven” gives us a misleading concept of the nature of salvation. We cannot go to Heaven until we die, but we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven while we are alive in the flesh. There is a practical importance attached to using the scriptural terminology.
Man possessed Paradise. Man lost Paradise. God has promised to restore Paradise (and add much more). The price of redemption must be paid. The problem must be corrected. The promised restoration must take place. This is the nature and significance of the Judaic-Christian salvation.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
True faith always recognizes that the Christian redemption is an opportunity for glory. Salvation never is handed to us apart from true faith, the faith that works through obedience to the written Word and to the personally revealed Word of God. Salvation always is an opportunity, an access, an authority, an invitation to drink. We must ask and continue asking. We must seek and continue seeking. We must knock and continue knocking.
It appears that what it means to be “saved” differs from person to person. Some people apparently experience a basic salvation and they are not challenged by the Lord to go further. Others, as the Apostle Paul, are presented with a high goal that they strive to attain to throughout their lifetime.
Some are destined to sit on the Lord’s right hand. They will be required to drink the cup of suffering of which Christ drank. To whom much is given, of him shall much be required.
Does the Scripture teach that all will receive approximately the same reward in the Kingdom of God?
How much of a difference was there between the salvation of Abraham and the salvation of Lot? Was there any significant difference in their inheritance? Their fruitfulness? The Scriptures speak of those who will shine as the stars forever. There are hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold.
The Apostles, as recorded in the Book of Acts, stressed repentance. In order to participate in the Christian salvation we are required to repent, to turn away from the world and become Jesus’ disciple. It is the disciples who are called “Christians” (Acts 11:26).
If we would obtain the salvation to eternal life we must take heed to the scriptural doctrine of godly behavior.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
Our salvation indeed is conditional. Both rewards and punishments shall be administered at the Judgment Seat of Christ, just as the Scriptures declare.
Is the Christian Salvation Conditional?
The Christian cannot be forced to sin even though he still is living in the world. There is power in the salvation of Christ to give us victory over each sin. We have not been called of God to live in disobedience and bondage but in obedience to God and in the conquering of our sinful tendencies. Christ can deliver us.
Please note that Divine grace includes the invitation, the guidance, and the Virtue necessary for our salvation. Grace never is a substitute for, an alternative to, the program of salvation.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
When the meaning of the expression “the Lord our righteousness” becomes clear to us, then we understand the Divine salvation. Until we grasp this concept, Judaism and Christianity are religions consisting of various doctrines. The true salvation of the Lord is marriage, a union of God and the saint. The believer dies to the Law of Moses in order that he may be married to Christ. Marriage to Christ is the strictest bondage and the most glorious freedom available to mankind.
Requires Effort
We do not work for our salvation but we certainly have to work it out!
Judgment Begins with the Household of God
We must keep the Words of the Lord and His Apostles if we hope to gain the rest of God, the fullness of salvation, which is the dwelling in us of the Father and the Son.
The true saint both loves and fears God. He loves God with all his strength. He also has experienced the terror of the Lord. He works out his salvation with fear and trembling.
The teachers who advocate the “Jesus did it all” concept of salvation may have some knowledge of the Scriptures that announce our position in Christ, but they certainly are unaware of the warfare that is necessary if the Divine vision is to become reality in our personality. We must make every effort if we are to enter the rest of God, the Divine vision that portrays our position in Christ at the right hand of God.
The gift of salvation cannot be earned. But in order to profit from it, to really “receive” it, we must give our whole life to gaining it. The teaching today is that Christ not only gives us the piano but also imparts the ability to us to play it excellently without any practice or effort on our part. This is not scriptural.
The Christian salvation is not a device whereby those who belong in Hell find themselves in the Paradise of God!
We have to seek life each day. There is more abundant life for us if we will seek the Lord. We must lay hold on eternal life. To walk in the Spirit of God results in eternal life but to continue in the flesh is to kill our Divine Life.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
The Christian salvation is not an undemanding gift, it is a discipleship. Jesus does not say, Here is life, take it. Rather, Jesus says, “I am life, follow me.” Jesus is the “way” to eternal life. He is the “door.” We enter through Him and then walk in the pressured, narrow way that leads to life.
There comes a time in the life of a person when he is faced with Christ. We should say, there come times; for the Lord does not appear to us just once but on many occasions and on many levels of challenge to obedience. There are not just the “four steps of salvation,” as in the current formula, there are at least four million steps of salvation. Each experienced saints understand this very well as he seeks to abide in Jesus during his present instruction.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
Salvation is always now, always dynamic, always growing and developing. One cannot hear Jesus’ Word and believe in God yesterday and have eternal life today. Hearing Jesus’ Word and believing in God is always now, and the moment we cease hearing Jesus’ Word and believing in God we come under judgment, and the forces of death begin to make headway against the Life of God that is abiding in us.
In order to be saved we must maintain our confidence in Christ until we have come to the end of our testings and tribulations. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
Judgment Begins with the Household of God
We work out our own salvation with fear and trembling because of the countless snares and temptations that confront us each day. To overcome our fleshly lusts, our miserable self-centeredness, the world, Satan, Antichrist, and lukewarm believers, is no minor undertaking. We can overcome sin but we do so with the greatest difficulty. However, the rewards for conquering sin are great.
The Judgment Seat of Christ Is in Session
We are not required to transform ourselves. Our responsibility is to remain willing to cooperate with the Spirit as He brings us into the perfect image of the Lord and into complete union with the Lord. This is our salvation. In this manner, Jesus Himself becomes and remains our salvation, our righteousness.
To insist we have all of salvation “by faith” (which is not faith at all but mental acceptance), and then continue in the world as usual while we are waiting for the wedding ceremony to take place in Heaven, is the error of contemporary Christianity. There is no understanding, in such an approach to salvation, of the Kingdom principle of cause and effect, of sowing and reaping.
If we are willing to take part in all the provisions of grace that God has given to us, being diligent in the good works that pertain to Christian living and discipleship, the Holy Spirit will complete the work of salvation by enabling us to overcome the bondages of fleshly desire and rebellion that hold our mortal body captive.
Today Is the Day…
Let us look to the Lord now—today. Now is the day of salvation as far as we are concerned. We shall be held accountable for the grace being presented to us today. Those who neglect the current salvation will not escape the anger of the Lord.
Cleave to Christ with every ounce of your personality. Do it now—right now! This is the best and only time you ever will have. Today is the day of salvation. Today is your day to be married to Christ. Tomorrow very well may be too late for you.
It is not enough to know that if any person is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. There is no salvation in knowing this fact. The covenant operates as our old fallen nature is crucified with Christ and the resurrection Life of Christ takes its place.
If we reign diligently, faithfully, and prayerfully over the small “kingdom” that God has given us in this world we will reign diligently, faithfully, and prayerfully over the great kingdom available to us during the Kingdom Age. Now is the time. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the hour to demonstrate how faithful we shall be to Jesus.
THE PROCESS OF SALVATION
Dynamic Not Static
The Christian salvation may be thought of as a journey. We commence in the image of Satan and have Satan’s spirit in us. We think the thoughts of Satan, speak the words of Satan, and perform the actions of Satan. By the time we reach the end of the journey we are in the image of God and have God’s Spirit in us. We think the thoughts of God, speak the words of God, and perform the actions of God. This is what the Christian redemption accomplishes.
Under the new covenant, God Himself has become our salvation.God Himself has come down from Heaven to earth, not only to forgive us but to deliver us from the power and the effects of sin, to form us in His image, to bring us into oneness with Himself and with other saints, to make us very fruitful in multiplying the image of Christ in the universe, and to remove from us every authority and power other than the Presence of God through Christ.
Salvation results from our being set apart by the Spirit of God to holy behavior as we obey the truth set forth by the Apostles of the Lamb. Salvation is not restricted to a momentary experience in which we acknowledge the truth of Christ’s atoning death, triumphant resurrection, and Divine Lordship, but a day by day living in Christ. The momentary experience is preached today but it is in error.
Why don’t we preach the Bible instead of the traditions of men? We have made a business out of “saving souls” with our “four steps of salvation.” The Holy Spirit of God uses ten million steps of salvation. We are presenting a packaged salvation, a canned forgiveness that operates by the wisdom and power of the flesh and often is practiced for the glory of man. It lacks the breadth of God, the knowledge of the Lord, the timing of the Holy Spirit, the genuine compassion of the Holy One of Israel.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
Salvation is moral transformation. To be saved is to be released from Satan and brought into holy fellowship with God. Salvation is a continuing process in our life. Salvation has a specific beginning, a specific divinely-guided program, and a specific conclusion. It has an alpha and an omega. Jesus is the Author and the Finisher of our salvation.
The believer who pictures himself as forgiven and ready for Paradise is not undergoing the daily transformation that of itself is salvation. He is waiting, not being changed into a new creature. He has a wrong vision of the Father’s purpose and program.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
The program of redemption is a process of salvation, of deliverance from sin and death. The Divine redemption is not salvation from Hell, it is salvation from what we are. It is salvation from our union with Satan and the bringing of us into union with God through Christ.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
Salvation is a process of continual judgment and deliverance from sin. This is why Peter speaks of fiery trials and then tell us that it is difficult even for the righteous to be saved.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
God has devised a plan for the salvation of His elect and of all who will accept His provision. God has sent Christ as a sin-bearer so that whoever places his trust in Him may be saved. God’s plan includes the forgiveness of sins that are past, through the atoning blood of the sin-bearer, and also Divine grace by which the believer, while he is continuing to be forgiven by the authority of the atoning blood, may work out his salvation. The believer works out his salvation by confessing his sins, as the Holy Spirit brings them before him, and then, through the Spirit’s help, by ceasing to practice them.
The Judgment Seat of Christ Is in Session
Not to Be Neglected
The important aspect of the Divine salvation is how we respond to the will of the Lord Jesus—now and always. Either we are obeying His voice or else we will suffer the consequences.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
It is easy to neglect our salvation because there does not seem to be time enough in the day. If we are too busy to attend to the Lord as we should, we are too busy. Serving the Lord is more important than our trade or profession. Our first business in life is to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
It is not only the unsaved, ignorant heathen who are in danger of Divine punishment, it is the Christian people who have neglected their salvation who have reason to be terrified at the thought of falling into the hands of Christ.
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
There are many references in the New Testament to the fate of the careless, the disobedient, the sinful. They do not paint a pleasant picture. We are exhorted to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
One of the greatest sins any Christian can commit is the sin of neglecting to press into the inheritance, into the rest of God. If we neglect our salvation, if we are busy with marrying and buying and selling when the King needs us for His business, then we surely will be punished severely in the Day of the Lord.
One of the greatest mistakes that can be made by a believer in Christ is to view his salvation as a ticket to Heaven, and then just wait for the day he dies so he can “retire” in Heaven. To neglect the daily lessons of the Holy Spirit, to shun the life of cross-carrying obedience to the Lord Jesus in the hope we will be saved by “grace,” is to miss the process of redemption. When we die we will be dealt with according to our folly.
The Book of Hebrews is an exhortation to experienced Jewish saints to press toward the rest of God. These Jews had been persecuted for the Gospel but had accepted this joyfully. Now they were neglecting their salvation. They were not assembling as frequently as before and were being chastened by the Lord that they might be partakers of His holiness. The writer of the Book of Hebrews warns them again and again of the perils of neglecting to press forward each day.
In the industrialized nations, time is a problem. Many people are so busy! The danger here is that of neglecting our salvation—the sin of neglect.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
We must possess our soul in great patience, for it is the salvation, the re-creation of our soul that is in the balance. It is possible to let our own soul slip from our grasp by not being true to God.
The current attitude toward salvation is far removed from the truth. Those “believers” who are living careless lives will be visited with Divine fire in the near future.
Christian scholars have overemphasized imputed (ascribed) righteousness until the doctrine has become error. It is not true that “Jesus did it all.” The Lord Jesus made it possible, and still makes it possible, for us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. The Lord has a part to play and we have a part to play. If we do not do our part we will not be found worthy of the Kingdom of God regardless of “grace and mercy.” It is time for the Christian people to wake up and cease their sinning.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
If we adopt the attitude that the Christian salvation is a blanket pardon of our sinful state so that when we die physically we will be permitted to make Heaven our eternal home, we will not make the effort to enter the Kingdom of God. We will not work with Jesus and the saints in bringing the rule of God into the earth. But if we understand that the redemption of the material creation is one of the principal goals of the Christian salvation, our outlook and behavior will be transformed. Each day of our pilgrimage will become a new opportunity to enter the Kingdom of God.
Let us not be proud but work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Remember the tormented Judas. Remember the covetous Ananias and Sapphira.
One of the greatest sins any Christian can commit is the sin of neglecting to press into the inheritance, into the rest of God. If we neglect our salvation, if we are busy with buying and selling and going here and there when the King needs us for His business, then we surely will be punished severely in the Day of the Lord.
Kingdom Instruction from the Book of Joshua
If after having been sealed for salvation in the Day of Christ we then continue to walk “in the flesh,” not giving adequate attention to entering the spiritual life of the Kingdom of God, we will die spiritually (Romans 8:13).
The Christian who is not walking in the light of God’s Presence, who is not confessing and gaining victory over his sins and self-love, who is disobeying God’s will, who is neglecting his salvation (as is true of many Christians of our day), is facing a terrifying scene—either in this world, if God is merciful, or else when he dies and stands before the Lord Jesus Christ in Person.
The Judgment Seat of Christ Is in Session
A word of warning here. The new Christian is to observe carefully all the commandments issued by the Lord Jesus and His Apostles, especially in the realms of immorality, anger, covetousness, and sorcery. When we are having a problem we are to come boldly to the throne of grace in order to obtain help in our hour of struggle. If we do not make every effort to obey the Lord and His Apostles, claiming instead that we are “saved by grace” as today’s foolishness and ignorance teaches, we will never be able to enter the salvation of the Lord. We will not be made a partaker of Christ.
Whoever will choose to do so may make an eternal covenant with God through the blood of Jesus. But woe to those in the present hour who are filled with spiritual pride, who are not walking in continual repentance, who are not working out their own salvation with trembling in the holy fear of God!
We conclude that when we believe and are baptized we are saved from the wrath of God. After this initial experience we must seek the Lord daily that we may be transformed in personality. If we neglect to follow the Lord in the transformation and ministry He is requiring of us, then we are a disobedient child. In this case, we may or may not be saved in the Day of Wrath. If we are saved it will be as by fire. Salvation by fire will not prove to be a joyous experience!
Utilizes Suffering as a Tool
Salvation from disobedience to obedience is especially important with respect to the rulers of the Kingdom of God. They undergo much suffering in order that obedience may be perfected in them. Under Christ they will govern the works of God’s hands.
The individual who has accepted the false gospel, that Jesus Christ came to save us from Hell, goes through life waiting until he dies so he can go to Heaven. Meanwhile he tries to do good but fails more often than not. He has not been oriented correctly to the Christian salvation.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
The sufferings of the Christian, if he is following the Lord as he should, are God’s judgments on his life: not a judgment of condemnation and wrath but a judgment of discipline to salvation. We are saved by the judgment of discipline. Apart from Divine judgment we remain sinful, self-centered, and otherwise spiritually immature and subject to the authority of the Lake of Fire (Revelation 2:11; 20:6).
The Judgment Seat of Christ Is in Session
Salvation from disobedience to obedience occurs as we choose to follow the Lord. It is the writer’s opinion that obedience to the degree required of the eternal rulers can be attained only in the present world. We base our opinion on the fact that Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered in the world. The present world is peculiarly suited to the development of rulers because it is so difficult to gain dominion here. The concept appears to be that if we can overcome what comes against us here, we then will be fit to rule in the ages to come when the same difficulties are not present.
God sends fiery judgments on us for the purpose of burning sin out of us so we may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God. We are suffering so we may enter the Kingdom of God. We suffer so we will cease from sin (I Peter 4:1). The righteous are saved with difficulty as they work out their salvation with fear and trembling.
Salvation from spiritual bondage to spiritual freedom is brought about by the removal of unclean spirits from us. The removal is accomplished through the authority of the blood of the cross and the power of the Spirit of God. Often we are brought into fiery sufferings that aid in breaking our spiritual bondages. Moral bondages are spiritual in nature. There is no Scripture that implies we are released from moral bondages on the basis of physical death. Moral bondages must be cast out by the Lord, they do not leave us because we die physically.
To those who may claim we are changing the character of the Christian salvation from one of salvation by grace through faith to one of salvation by suffering, our answer is: read what Peter said and decide for yourselves. It does not matter what our traditions state or what we think must or should be true. It matters only what the Scriptures state.
The Judgment Seat of Christ Is in Session
THE DAY OF THE LORD
INTRODUCTION TO THE DAY OF THE LORD
We cannot mock, or cheat, or deceive God. What we are sowing in life we surely will reap in the Day of Christ.
The Kingdom principle of sowing and reaping needs to be emphasized in our day. Sometimes the Gospel of Christ is preached as though it were a Divinely ordained method of evading the unchanging, universal law of sowing and reaping. Many ministers of the Gospel appear to believe that if we name the name of Jesus we will not reap what we sow. This doctrine contradicts the Scriptures.
If a farmer sows corn, he will reap corn. If a farmer sows wheat he will reap wheat. If he sows rye he will reap rye. If he plants apple trees he will harvest apples.
What would we think of the farmer who sowed the seed of weeds but trusted that by the grace of God in Christ he was going to reap corn?
We would consider him to be a foolish, ignorant individual who did not understand the purpose of the grace of God.
We would counsel him to sow corn and trust that by the grace of God he will have good weather. If he sows weeds he certainly shall reap weeds!
How many believers today are doing just that?
They are sowing lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, jealousy, contention, sectarianism, envy, murder, and drunkenness. They are trusting that by the grace of God in Christ they will reap the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God. Such are foolish and ignorant. They do not understand the purpose of the grace of God.
We should counsel each believer to sow moral purity, the worship of the true God, joy, peace, confidence, the love of the brothers, self-control, and contentment in the will of God.
Meanwhile the grace of God in Christ will cover his shortcomings and fill him with joy and peace as he sows the aspects and blessings of the Kingdom of God.
The law of sowing and reaping cannot be circumvented. The believer who is sowing the lusts of his flesh but is hoping to reap eternal life is heading straight toward disaster in the Day of the Lord.
A Study Guide for the Book of Galatians
DEFINING THE DAY OF THE LORD
What it Is, What it Is Not
The vision of the Day of the Lord is one of the most important concepts of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Day of the Lord will begin when the Lord Jesus Christ descends from Heaven with His saints and holy angels for the purpose of judging sin. He will establish His Kingdom in the earth at that time. There exists a false and dangerous vision of the Day of the Lord.
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
The main emphasis of the Prophets, as later was true of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the early apostles, is on the Day of the Lord and the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth; never on dying and going to Heaven.
Out of the World or out of the Evil?
The Apostles preached salvation in terms of the Day of the Lord, the coming of Christ in His Kingdom with the holy angels, the Day of Judgment. The purpose of salvation is to be received favorably by the Lord and to enter eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and to avoid being destroyed by the wrath of God when the Lord returns.
The True Hope: “Rapture” or Resurrection?
The Day of the Lord is the period of time when God cuts off the reign of man and the reign of Satan, and God Himself takes over the direct supervision of the earth. God never has surrendered the earth or its inhabitants to anyone other than the beloved Son. Satan and the flesh have had their day in the earth. In the Day of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ shall overthrow all earthly governments and shall rule for eternity.
The Tabernacle of the Congregation
We think the believers of today have an unscriptural hope, a misguided hope, and that this false hope is preventing the spiritual growth necessary for survival in the coming days of horror. The false hope includes an incorrect vision of the events and purpose of the Day of the Lord. The false hope of which we are speaking is that at any moment all believers in the Lord Jesus will be removed from the earth and carried up to Heaven. The supposed removal will take place before the government of Antichrist controls the world and before the great tribulation of the last days.
The false hope is the hope of the any-moment pretribulation ascension (“rapture”) of the Christian people.
The True Hope: “Rapture” or Resurrection?
The parousia is the appearing of the Lord. It is the Day of the Lord, the Day of Christ. To the best of our knowledge, no passage of the Scriptures teaches that the Lord Jesus will come from a distant place and return with the Church to that place prior to the parousia (or at any other time.). Rather, the coming, or presence, of the Lord is an open revelation of what always has been close at hand.
If the Prophets did not speak of our going to Heaven, and the Lord Jesus did not point us toward Heaven as our goal, what was true of the early Apostles? Didn’t they write about our dying and going to Heaven? No, they did not. The Apostles preached the coming of the Lord, the Day of the Lord, the resurrection from the dead. None of these topics has anything to do with our dying and going to Heaven.
There are many passages of the New Testament that stress salvation in the Day of the Lord but none that emphasizes our dying and going to Heaven. One would assume from our traditions that the Scriptures are filled with references to our dying and going to Heaven. In fact, such references are very scarce. Also, the Book of Revelation speaks of the judgments that are to fall on the earth, climaxing with the coming of the Lord Jesus with His saints to the earth.
The first-century apostles did not emphasize going to Heaven. The apostles always emphasized the Day of Christ, the return of Christ to the earth, the coming of the Kingdom of God (the same message preached by John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus).
Out of the World or out of the Evil?
How different from our current viewpoint! We stress that the important thing is to die and go to the spirit Paradise. But Paul ignores this unscriptural emphasis and points to the resurrection of the body in the Day of the Lord.
The Release of the Material Creation
The New Testament has very little to say about what happens to the Christian when he or she dies. The emphasis of the New Testament is on the Day of the Lord and the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.
The apostolic message had to do with the Day of the Lord, with the resurrection from the dead, with the coming of Christ in His Kingdom. If the reader will go back and study the writings of the New Testament, keeping in mind our statement that the Christian land of promise is not Heaven, he may be surprised by what he finds.
The Apostles of Christ always pointed toward the Day of Christ, which will be the spiritual fulfillment of the Levitical Day of Atonement, the Day of Reconciliation (Leviticus, Chapter 16). The Day of the Lord will begin on a kingdomwide basis with the return of Christ to the earth. It will last a thousand years, concluding with the final judgment of mankind.
Three Aspects of God’s Eternal Plan
In the Day of the Lord, the Life of Christ, which is the true Light of the world, will fill the Body of the Christ. Then the nations of the earth will come to that light and be healed of their unbelief and fear.
The Day of Resurrection
The end of our pursuit of Christ through the Spirit is attainment to the resurrection, of readiness to be revealed in the fullness of resurrection life in the Day of Christ.
The revelation of God in Christ in the saints among the nations of the earth is a greater expression of Divine Glory than our going to the spiritual Heaven when we die. Dying and going to the spiritual Heaven is glorious, but the resurrection from the dead exceeds that glory. This is why the Scriptures emphasize the coming to earth of the Kingdom of God rather than our life in Heaven prior to the Day of the Lord.
When Paul refers to “eternal life,” to redemption, he often puts the acquiring of it in the future, revealing that he is not speaking of reconciliation to God in our inner man, which is present now, but rather of the reviving of the mortal body in the Day of the Lord (Ephesians 1:13,14; 4:30; I Peter 1:5).
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
It is God’s Spirit who dwells in us who will make alive our body in the Day of Christ (Romans 8:11).
For those who are willing to endure all the way through to the completion of this process of replacement and indwelling the rewards are staggering. Such will attain to the inner resurrection while yet in the flesh and blood body. When they die they will be brought to the very Presence of Jesus. In the Day of the Lord their flesh and bone body will be raised and filled with their transformed and Christ-filled inner man. On this resurrected person the Lord Jesus will place a great weight of Divine Life and Glory.
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
All creation, Heaven and earth, is looking forward to the Day of the Lord. Our body, then animated by indestructible resurrection life, will be raised from the dead and clothed with a body like that of the Lord Jesus.
At the coming of the Lord from Heaven the Holy Spirit will loose us from the weight of our mortal, sin-prone body. Our body will be filled with the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. Then we will have been completely redeemed and set free in Christ. The redemption of our mortal body is part of the inheritance that is to come to us in the Day of the Lord.
A Study Guide for the Book of Ephesians
Our hope is not that we will be caught away but that the Lord Jesus will come in the fullness of His power and glory, raise us from the corruption of death, clothe us with a body of glory like His own body, and then fill us with Himself so that His glorious coming is multiplied by our coming with Him. This is the Day of the Lord, the one true coming of the Lord. The Lord will come with His army of righteous saints. The land will be as the garden of Eden before them, filled with the fair works of the flesh. Behind them will be a desolate wilderness as they destroy all that Satan and the self-will of mankind have accomplished.
The True Hope: “Rapture” or Resurrection?
THE NATURE OF THE DAY OF THE LORD
A Day of Fearfulness for the Hypocrite
The trumpet must be blown among God’s people today. They must learn to fear the Lord, for the coming of Christ is not as we have imagined. The Day of the Lord will be a dreadful hour. Even the righteous are saved with difficulty from destruction in that Day (I Peter 4:18).
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
There is not enough fear of God in the land today. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We have become overfamiliar with the things of Christ and are paying the price in the loss of His Presence and glory. Our overconfidence is not based on spiritual realities, on the true nature of the coming Day of Christ.
A Study Guide for The Book of Second Corinthians
Today we are hearing a weak version of the new covenant. Contemporary preaching and teaching by no means reflect the severity and sternness of Christ and his apostles. The realities of the Day of the Lord will be upon us before long and they will be as terrible as the prophets and the Lord Jesus have foretold. The faithful prophets and witnesses have warned us but we are not prepared.
In the Day of the Lord the present generation will be in jeopardy because of our dangerous overfamiliarity with the things of Christ. We are not working out our own salvation with fear and trembling! The fear of God has been taken away from us. What shall we do in the Day of Wrath? How shall we stand before Him whose eyes are a flame of fire?
Will we bring God down to our level?
A Study Guide for The Book of Second Corinthians
We have heard there will be deception in the last days. Even now there is much deception. Many who claim to be the Lord’s ministers are proclaiming that no person who professes faith in Christ will hear any negative comment in the Day of Christ nor will be allowed to suffer tribulation. How can this be true in the light of the Gospel accounts, and the writings of the Apostles who teach us that the righteous scarcely are saved (I Peter 4:18)?
The inheritance of the sons of God is marvelous beyond description, and the punishments reserved for the unfaithful believers are very severe. Let us flee from those of today who are teaching that all professors of belief in Christ will receive the same reward in the Day of Christ. They have no scriptural support for their claim. Those who currently are announcing that Christians will not be rewarded according to their works may bring themselves and their followers into dreadful consequences. It is appointed to each of us to die, and after we die we shall be rewarded according to our deeds.
What can we say of Paul? Did Paul by his behavior and teachings suggest to us that the Christian is permitted to live in adultery, uncleanness of the flesh, stealing, lying, covetousness, violence, carousing? Is this what Paul taught concerning the Kingdom of God? Yet, Paul is the apostle whose writings are the basis for the perverted doctrine that the emphasis of the Kingdom of God is on “grace,” meaning that it is not essential how we behave ourselves provided we make a correct theological statement concerning Christ (Romans 3:8; II Peter 3:16). Those who hold such a viewpoint are making the Word of God have no effect by their tradition. Truly, the Day of Christ will prove to be the day of surprise for those who fancy that Christ is approving their lukewarm, indifferent, fleshly, self-centered, self-willed, worldly “Christianity.”
Notice that in the Day of the Lord, Christ does not raise the question of one’s belief. The issue is, rather, what the believer has done with the things of the Kingdom of God that have been given to him. Those who believe and teach that our inheritance in the Kingdom of God depends on our statement of faith rather than on our behavior will stand one day before the Lord with their followers. They then will give an accounting of their manner of life in the world, before the eyes of the Judge of all the earth. Having read in the Gospel accounts the teachings of Christ, how will they answer?
A Study Guide for The Book of Second Corinthians
The individual who preaches only what is positive and pleasant to the listeners is part of the False Prophet. He has not been taught by the Lord. He is seeking his own gain. His god is his stomach. He is not a true pastor, he is a destroyer of the sheep. Their blood is on his hands. He shall not escape judgment in the Day of the Lord.
We are to declare forthrightly what God has spoken to our hearts. If we are hated or rejected or killed because of what we have stated, no harm has been done. If we hold back part of the counsel of God, much harm has been done. The blood of the listeners will be required at our hands in the Day of Christ. God will deliver us, as He did Elijah and Elisha, if we perform His whole will fearlessly.
If a believer has faithfully followed the Lord and the Lord has given him a fruitful ministry, He will receive a reward in the Day of the Lord. If the ministry of the believer has been self-motivated, he has not followed the Lord but his own spiritual ambitions, he has been treacherous toward his family, has sought his own glory, has practiced immorality, has coveted money, all he has accomplished shall be burned up in the fire of God.
Until the wall of separation has been erected between all uncleanness and the saints, God will not abide in the camp. We always will lose our battles. The awe of God’s Presence will not be felt in our assemblings. God is a God of righteousness. The scepter of Christ’s Kingdom is the scepter of righteousness. He who is walking in uncleanness neither sees Christ nor knows Christ.
Of what use will all our religious effort be if we hear in the Day of Christ, “Depart from me, you worker of iniquity”? Holiness is more important in the work of the Kingdom than one would infer from the present state of the Christian churches. We may be longing for a extraordinary move of God among the nations. God is longing for a powerful move of holiness among the believers in Christ and will not accept our prayers until we put away our unrighteous behavior from us.
All the ministries and gifts of the Holy Spirit are subject to the saints to whom they have been given. The saint is never ruled by his gift. He rules the gift. Either he diligently and conscientiously stirs up and utilizes his talents for the good of the Body of Christ or he hides his light under a bushel. There will be a reward for the faithful steward and severe punishment for the less diligent, in the Day of the Lord.
A Study Guide for the Book of First Corinthians
It appears certain that the Day of Christ will be the greatest surprise in the history of man. Many who have been prominent in the work of the Lord will be cast from the Presence of God and the Lamb because they are workers of evil. They love the present world and are using the things of Christ in order to become wealthy. They are preaching and teaching today. They will be cast into outer darkness when Christ appears.
A Study Guide for the Book of Philippians
God is more interested in the motives behind “Christian” work than He is in the “success” of the work itself. All motives will be revealed in the Day of the Lord.
The Tabernacle of the Congregation
The division in the Day of the Lord will not be between the churchgoers and the heathen but between the righteous and the wicked.
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
The Holy Spirit of God wields His sword through the saints in order to save people—to cut through their bondages so they can be released to righteous living. But in the Day of the Lord the Spirit will thrust and slash with awful effect, destroying the forces of wickedness and slaying all who resist the will of the Lamb of God.
In the present hour there is much confusion. There is no wall between the two lands—the two places are intermingled. The light has not been separated from the darkness. This mixture will not stand in the Day of Christ. The light must be separated from the darkness.
There must be a division between the land of self-centeredness and sin, and the land of faith in God and righteousness. Every Christian must choose one land or the other.
There are believers in Christ who bring peace, healing, strength, and blessing wherever they go—even under the most unlikely and depressing circumstances. Such are peacemakers. They are the sons of God. There are other “believers in Christ,” who may or may not be saved in the Day of the Lord, who bring gossip, bitterness, confusion, wherever they go—even where there readily could have been righteousness, peace, and joy. Although they profess faith in Christ they actually are servants of Satan. They promote division, confusion, hatred, strife, lies, arrogance, rebellion—every evil, satanic work. They bring disaster wherever they go. Their actions, words, and motives are of Hell not of Heaven.
Out of the World or out of the Evil?
Will we be rich in the world? Will we command and force God to do our bidding? Is Christ our slave? Is God the Father smiling on our sin, our rebellion, our complacency, our presumption? Will no person among us be reproved in the Day of Christ? Will we all, like the godly Enoch and Elijah, ascend in the clouds in the first resurrection whether or not we have overcome the world through the Spirit of Christ?
Sometimes we say people wear masks, meaning they choose to conceal who and what they really are, what their true identity is. Satan does not often disclose his horrible wretchedness, his hideous passion to destroy all that is virtuous and worthy. He and all other sinners will be unmasked and made manifest in the Day of Christ.
The Sovereignty of God in the Plan of Salvation
God is judging sin in His household. The true believers are repenting and confessing their sins. The majority of so-called “Christians” will never repent of their sins, and they will reject and persecute anyone who attempts to reprove them. This is the state of Christianity today and judgment hovers over the churches. Multitudes of Christians are in the valley of decision. The Day of the Lord is near, in the valley of decision. Shall I seek the Lord with all my heart until I find His will for myself, or shall I trust the preachers who are crying rapture! rapture! rapture!
A Study Guide for the Book of Galatians
The contemporary Christian tendency toward a trust in “eternal security” masquerades as an acceptable Divine assurance of salvation. Indeed there is a true Divine assurance for the weary pilgrim who is anxious to please God.
But the modern equivalent of the scriptural comfort of Divine assurance is the belief that no matter how far we stray from the Lord, He will lift us up in the Day of Christ and we shall rule with Him. We are presenting a false vision and it has destroyed the witness of the Christian churches.
It is time for a restoration of the true understanding of redemption. God’s holy remnant, His chosen, will understand this and embrace the true. The false, while it appeals to the deceived mind, will be discarded by God’s saints as the coming of the Lord draws near.
A Study Guide for the Book of Hebrews
Will not Sodom, Gomorrah, Capernaum, and all other cities and nations that have been judged by the Lord rise up in the Day of Christ and bear witness against the “Christian” nations of today?
Is it a time for smugness and complacency because we speak in tongues, or should we not cry out to the Lord in sincere repentance so He may protect us and our loved ones during the tribulation that is at the door?
Sometimes Christians become overconfident, too familiar with God. We are commanded to fear and tremble. When we catch a glimpse of the Day of the Lord we shall understand the “terror” of the Lord as well as the graciousness of His saving love. In fact, His grace and redeeming love are brought into clearer view when we understand how terrible is His wrath against the sin in the world.
The Day of the Lord will be a period of frightful judgment, trouble, fiery burning, war, agony of spirit. Satan will drop all pretenses and emerge from every point at which he is entrenched. Death will be sought after but will flee away. The burning eyes of Christ will search out every hidden corner of the hearts of men. All motives will be brought into the open for everyone to see. Every spirit—Christian and non-Christian—will stand naked before the piercing gaze of God Almighty. The righteous will “scarcely be saved [saved with difficulty]” (I Peter 4:18)! Christians will be bathed in fire the same as everyone else.
If we have put our faith in the Lord Jesus and have been baptized in water, we will be saved in the Day of Wrath. But all our works will be tested by fire. No true Christian will be destroyed by God’s wrath. We shall be preserved in that Day. Nevertheless, the part of our personality that has not been re-created in Christ will be burned away. Only that which has been born of Christ is of the Kingdom of God.
The Tabernacle of the Congregation
Make certain that you are adhering to the Scriptures and not just to the traditions of men. The vision that you are following may determine your eternal destiny in the Day of the Lord.
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
A Day in Which We Will Reap What We Have Sown
Life lived in the desires of the flesh brings death to our spiritual nature.
Life lived in the desires of the Holy Spirit brings joy and health to our body, soul, and spirit in this world and preparation for resurrection in the Day of the Lord.
A Study Guide for the Book of Galatians
Our personality and our inheritance are both at stake. If we live our life in the flesh, yielding to the demands of our body, seeking our own security, pleasure, and accomplishments, we will suffer enormous loss in the Day of Christ.
A Study Guide for the Book of First Corinthians
The Divinely ordained Scriptures, the Old Testament and especially the New Testament, state that in the Day of Christ every individual will receive the results of his behavior. Current Christian teaching does not emphasize nearly enough this most fundamental of Kingdom concepts—the eternal Kingdom law of sowing and reaping.
The Lord Jesus will give to every person precisely as that person’s work has been. The individual who loved and sought after righteousness will be given righteousness in the Day of the Lord. The individual who loved and sought after sin will be given corruption in the Day of the Lord.
Professing faith in the Lord Jesus does not do away with the principle of sowing and reaping.
To whom much is given, of him shall much be required.
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
Those who continue in sin will receive the destruction of their personality in the Day of the Lord. They have not sown to the Spirit of God and so they will reap corruption. They have slain their own resurrection by continuing to live in the flesh. The condition to be feared is not Hell. The condition to approach with trembling is what we will receive in the Day of the Lord, at the time of the resurrection of the dead.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
The fate of man is not decided when he dies. The fate of man is decided when he stands before the judgment seat in the Day of Christ. The spirit realm is an area of waiting until the Lord comes, raises the dead, and appoints each individual his portion depending on how he has lived on the earth.
Salvation has to do with what happens to us in the Day of Christ, not with what takes place at the time of our physical death.
If we, through the grace of the Lord Jesus the Christ, have overcome the world, Satan, and our lusts and self-will, we will be given the crown of eternal life in the Day of Christ. Through God’s grace we have overcome, we have won the race. If we have sown to the flesh we will reap corruption, not eternal life, in the Day of Christ.
Out of the World or out of the Evil?
The written Word of God warns the negligent Christian that he will face an angry Christ in the Day of the Lord. He can expect to experience fiery torments, unbearable remorse, spiritual suffering, for an unknown period of time.
The believer who does not serve the Lord but walks in the lusts of his soul and flesh will reap corruption in the Day of the Lord. The believer who presses on in God, confessing his sins when he stumbles, serving Jesus with all his strength, will receive glory. God will forgive and cleanse him in the midst of the battle. He need not worry about his shortcomings for he will not face them in the Day of the Lord.
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
The Christians who spend their lives embracing the things of the world will find, in the Day of Christ, that they have embraced death. They will reap what they have sown. They have chosen death and they will be given death. The salvation that we are to receive at the return of the Lord is the consequence of our deeds in the present world. The Scripture is clear on this point.
At the coming of Christ, in the Day of the Lord, the dead will be judged. The victorious saints will receive their rewards. The reward we will receive in that Day will depend on what we have practiced during our life on the earth (Revelation 2:23; 22:12). Those who are teaching that it does not matter very much how the Christians behave themselves in the world, that we will be kings and priests of God on the basis of our profession of faith and doctrinal correctness, are greatly in error. They are ignorant of the fundamental Kingdom principles of cause and effect, of sowing and reaping.
We shall reap, in the Day of the Lord, what we have sown in the world. If we sow to our flesh we will reap corruption in the Day of the Lord. If we sow to the Holy Spirit we will reap eternal life in the Day of the Lord.
Here is the absolute righteousness of God. Whatever we sow we shall reap. If we sow to the Spirit of God by praying, reading the Scriptures, resisting Satan, confessing and turning away from our sins, giving, serving, gathering together on a regular basis with fervent disciples (as possible), obeying God in every detail, we will attain to the early resurrection which is from among the dead.
But if we spend our time and strength in eating, sleeping, playing, working, and reproducing, giving a minor role in our life to the things of Christ, all our works will be burned away by the Divine fire. Our spirit may be saved in the Day of Christ but we will be a naked spirit having little inheritance in the Kingdom of God. Make no mistake! Every one of us shall appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ in order that we may receive the things done in our body, whether they have been good or evil.
The incestuous Corinthian believer may not have been in danger of going to Hell when he died, but he certainly was in danger of his spirit not being “saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” It is what we shall receive in the day of resurrection that is the issue. Numerous “believers” in our day are living in the flesh, confident that they have their pass out of Hell. But they are going to reap corruption in the day of the Lord!
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
The Judgment Seat of Christ is a demonstration of spiritual laws of cause and effect, of reaping and sowing. We shall reap what we have sown. Spiritual laws are as powerful as the laws that govern the physical universe. It would not be the mercy of God for a careless, double-minded “believer” to be showered with spiritual blessing in the Day of Christ. It would be a transgression of fundamental spiritual law, a setting aside of the Word of God.
A Study Guide for The Book of Second Corinthians
The rewards to the overcomer, as we understand them, are given as increments in the development of a ruling spiritual nature in us. The rewards to the overcomer may be considered additions of eternal life, authority, power, glory, union with God through Christ, and opportunities for service—spiritual additions that will express themselves in our material form in the Day of Christ.
Those who do not overcome the resistance that comes against them, who do not permit the Holy Spirit to create the ruling nature of Christ in them, will not receive the rewards “by grace.” The Kingdom laws of cause and effect, of sowing and reaping, hold true. The fullness of what was promised to man in the beginning will be given only to those in whom the ruling spiritual nature has been developed.
The Release of the Material Creation
But if we are not faithful in putting to death the lusts of our flesh, the eternal life will diminish and finally leave altogether. In the Day of the Lord there will be no eternal life to make alive our mortal body. We will reap decay and ruin. We can notice the reaping of ruin in the parable of the sower, where some seed never came to maturity; in the parable of the foolish virgins, where those who had no oil had the door shut in their face; and in the parable of the vine and the branches, where the branches in Christ that did not bear fruit were cut from the Vine.
The purpose of the grace of God is to create good works in our personality so we can be rewarded for these good works in the Day of Christ. The grace produces good works. The good works result in God’s blessing and eternal life. If we receive Christ, but continue to sin, we will reap death and not life—now, and also in the Day of Christ.
If we are not putting to death the deeds of our body today we will not be set free from sin when the Lord comes. If we live according to the lusts of our flesh we will reap corruption, not life and righteousness, in the Day of the Lord. We indeed will receive the things done in our body.
If we have been faithful in the little we will be entrusted with the greater. To him who already has achieved substantial freedom from sin will be given complete freedom when the Lord appears. From him who has not been diligent will be removed even the small amount of freedom that he has.
Can you see now why the great issue of salvation is not escape from Hell but entrance into Divine Life? How many individuals have been handed their ticket that releases them from Hell and admits them to Paradise (they believe), only to find in the Day of the Lord that they will be given back precisely what they have done while living in the world? Whether or not they have received Christ as their Savior, if they have lived in sin and self-will they shall reap corruption in the Day of Resurrection.
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
Those who have followed the Scriptures and the people who have adhered to their teachings will be radiant in righteousness in the Day of Christ. Those who have taught that Christians are not required to behave righteously, and the other fables that fill the Christian assemblings of today, will be ashamed. They and their followers will be admonished by the Lord. What their end will be we cannot say. We do know that every individual will reap what he has sown, whether or not he is a believer.
We shall reap in the Day of Christ what we are sowing today. If we sow to the fullness of life we will reap the fullness of life. If we sow partly to our flesh we will reap part life, part lashes or destruction. The Lord Jesus, who is our Judge, will decide our fate in the Day of the Lord.
The part of our personality we do not surrender to Christ will not enter the Kingdom of God. Only that which has been filled with Christ will endure. We can have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom or we can appear as a naked spirit. It is our decision and responsibility.
The law of sowing and reaping cannot be circumvented. The believer who is sowing the lusts of his flesh but is hoping to reap eternal life is heading straight toward disaster in the Day of the Lord.
A Study Guide for the Book of Galatians
A Day to Prepare for in Advance
The Day of the Lord is at hand, and it is not a pleasant prospect for those who sin or for those who are accustomed to doing whatever comes into their mind, not being in submission to the rule of Christ.
It is not true that we will be plucked suddenly from a careless, halfhearted Christian life into a grand rulership with Christ. It shall never happen. The Scripture teaches against it by revealing that the promises of such glory are reserved for conquerors. It is a false hope, and the believer holding this hope is in deception. If we cannot rule in Christ today, in our present circumstances, we will not be able to rule in the Day of the Lord. We are on our proving ground now.
The Tabernacle of the Congregation
Whoever would be in the army of the Lord must be ready to take God’s side against Satan, against worldly believers, and, in the Day of the Lord, against wicked people.
When first we receive Christ we receive eternal life. Then we use the strength from that portion of life to pursue more life. We “lay hold” on eternal life. We seek more abundant eternal resurrection life. We sow to the Spirit of God so that we will reap life everlasting in the Day of the Lord (Galatians 6:8).
From then on we are to abide in Christ each day of our discipleship so the Divine Life given to us may be nourished and strengthened. If our new life is nourished and strengthened it will, at the coming of Jesus, make alive our mortal body. But if we permit the cares and things of the present world to choke out the eternal life that has been given to us, then there will be no inner Divine Life, no “oil” to make alive our body in the Day of the Lord.
The Day of the Lord always is at hand for the Lord’s people. Time is not the consideration. Even after we die physically we still are awaiting the Day of the Lord. We always are to live in the consciousness of the imminent coming of the great and terrible Day of the Lord.
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
We are saved from wrath by faith in the Lord Jesus the Christ. But faith apart from works is dead. True faith always results in the works of righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God that are stressed in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Such works will bring rewards in the Day of Christ. Unbelief, on the other hand, always results in unrighteousness, uncleanness, and disobedience toward God. Such works will bring punishment in the Day of Christ.
The Day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. Christ is drawing near to the earth. His nearness is being experienced first by those who are seeking Him with single-minded intensity and fervor. He is nearest those who are drawing near to Him. But His nearness always brings us into the valley of decision. Christ always is asking if we love Him. The Lord primarily is interested in our love for Him. Do we truly love Him? We think we do. But as He draws ever nearer to us we discover that we love many other things, including our own self.
“That day” is the Day of the Lord. It is the day in which every knee in us has bowed to Jesus and every tongue in us has confessed that Jesus is Lord. The Lord has knocked at every door of our personality, and we have opened every door so the King may establish His throne in every room of our being.
But isn’t it true that the Lord Jesus will come suddenly as a surprise? Yes, but to the wicked, not to the elect who are serving Him. The trumpets and torches of the 300 did not come as a surprise to Gideon’s army but to the Midianites. The Day of the Lord will not come as a surprise to the saints who are walking in the light of God’s will.
The Lord’s soldiers will have been prepared over many years for the Day of the Lord. The hour of the resurrection and ascension hardly is the time to examine the saints concerning the state of their inner man.
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
It must be obvious to the reader that a believer cannot take a casual approach to the Christian discipleship and then be filled with Christ and God in the Day of Christ’s appearing. Rather, we are being strengthened now in our inner being by the Spirit of God so Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. The forming and dwelling of Christ in us takes place one small step at a time.
The saints are being judged thoroughly in the present hour. The world and the worldly Christians are going about their self-willed way. In the Day of Christ the situation will be reversed. The saints will be rejoicing in glory while the world and the worldly Christians are answering to the Lord for their sins and self-will.
The wheat of the Lord consists of those who are married to the Lord Jesus the Christ. The tares are the wicked of the earth. Those who are in the “middle,” so to speak, the “church Christians” and the casual, will have to make their decision whether to be married to Jesus or to become a tare. There are multitudes in the valley of decision as the Day of the Lord draws near.
If we desire righteousness in the Day of the Lord we must walk in righteousness today.
We must demonstrate our worthiness by walking with Him today, washing our robes and making them white in the blood of the Lamb. There is a very important scriptural concept that seldom is mentioned in Christian circles. It is that salvation comes at the end of our discipleship, not only or even primarily at the beginning. The Christian message stresses that we are saved the moment we receive the Lord Jesus. This is true to a certain extent. Much more is stated in the Scripture about salvation in the Day of the Lord than about our initial step of coming to God through Christ.
The fruit of each saint in that day will be in proportion to his willingness now to “fall into the ground and die.” He who saves his life will lose it. He who loses his life in Christ will reap a staggering harvest of souls—his crown in the Day of the Lord.
A Study Guide for the Book of Ephesians
The Day of the Lord is at hand. Therefore, multitudes of people are being brought down into the “valley of decision.” The decision each of us must make is the extent to which he desires to establish Christ as the Center and Circumference of all he is and all he says and does. The question is that of the Lordship of Christ. We can choose to make a covenant of salvation with God by repentance, faith in Christ, and baptism in water.
According to the Scriptures, God will receive us if we turn away from the world and receive the Lord Jesus. If we choose to believe in Christ and serve Him we are blessed indeed and will be delivered from the wrath to come. The individual who attempts to hold on to both Christ and the world in the present hour will experience confusion and much pain, and may lose his soul.
The Sovereignty of God in the Plan of Salvation
The sinners in Zion will be terrified at what they behold in the near future. The hypocrites will be astonished. It is the dark hour just before the dawning of the Day of the Lord. Only those who truly are living in marriage, in union, with the Lord Jesus Christ will be able to resist the deceiving spiritual darkness that even now is settling down on us.
How many believers are wed neither to Moses nor Christ? They do not keep the Law and they are not living in Christ. They are hoping that their doctrinal position will bring them to the spirit Paradise when they die. They are mistaken. They are dwelling in spiritual death. Their spiritual death will be revealed in the Day of Christ.
It is taught that the judgment of the believer’s sins was accomplished on the cross and all that God will judge henceforth is the believer’s works of service (meaning he will receive a marvelous reward if he serves God and a lesser reward if he does not). The contemporary doctrine is that the professor of faith in Christ has nothing to fear in the Day of the Lord even though he has neglected to serve Christ during his life on the earth. The hastiest review of the New Testament writings will make plain that the concept of the lukewarm Christian having nothing to fear is a dreadful corruption of Paul’s doctrine of the grace of God in Christ.
In the Day of Christ the sinning members of the Church will be terrified. The Lord Jesus the Christ, our great High Priest, is walking among the lampstands (churches) today. He is observing each believer. Christ’ eyes are furnaces of fire. He is examining every motive, every action, every word. If we would be prepared to meet the Lord at His appearing we must pass the test of fire. The question has been raised: “Who shall dwell with the devouring fire?”
It is important for each Christian to understand that grace and mercy may intervene to save us from destruction in the Day of the Lord, but never to affect the kind of reward we receive in that Day. Grace and mercy operate now, authorizing, guiding, and empowering us so we may attain a better resurrection. Grace and mercy enter now so we shall sow life instead of death.
Grace and mercy never serve to set aside the law of sowing and reaping. Grace and mercy warn us of what is ahead if we do not repent, and then give us the wisdom and power to change our behavior so God may forgive us and help us live righteously before the day of judgment.
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
Those who continue in sin will receive the destruction of their personality in the Day of the Lord.
If we understand the Scriptures correctly, the Christian churches are in urgent need of repentance. Otherwise our generation of believers will face an angry Christ and destruction in the Day of the Lord.
God cannot be mocked. Every word, deed, thought, and imagination will be brought to judgment in the Day of the Lord.
Multitudes are in the valley of decision today. When the Day of the Lord draws near to the Christian he is forced to make a decision. “Should I give myself to Jesus? Or is this some trial that soon will be over so I can continue in my customary self-centered life?” The believers who continue to evade the cross will be led away from the Kingdom of God, not realizing this is happening. They are the church of Laodicea. They are worthless to God and to man, fit only to be vomited from the mouth of the Savior.
Those who choose to be married to Christ will be brought through severe chastening and fiery trials. Yet, the comforting voice of the Lord will come to them and His Presence will sustain them. They are His Bride. They will shine as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Let the Bride, the virgin daughter of Zion, rejoice. Her Lord is coming, skipping on the mountains of spices.
When we first receive Christ, God places the Spirit of resurrection life in us. If we nourish this inner life by following the Spirit of God, then, in the Day of Christ, our developed inner spiritual life will be extended to our mortal body making it alive. This is what Paul meant by attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Many preachers have applied Paul’s teaching concerning justification by faith in such a way that countless thousands of Christian people are unaware that justification by faith is a narrow, problem-filled path that the saint must walk if he is to stand in the Day of the Lord. The foundation of Christian theology is of God, but the structure that has been erected on it is not of God. We begin with a profession of faith, and then we have to live by faith. The righteous are to live by faith. If we accept Christ, and then live as any other fleshly person, the Gospel will condemn us rather than save us.
A Study Guide for the Book of First Corinthians
If we receive Christ into our heart as Lord of our conduct and Savior of our soul, placing our complete confidence in His shed blood to forgive our sins, looking forward to His glorious appearing, we will be saved in the Day of the Lord. If we truly believe these things, and are baptized in water into His death and resurrection, we will live as a stranger and pilgrim on the earth. But if our “faith” is only head-knowledge, we may attempt to use Christ as a means of our success in the world. Christ then will not become our life, our All-in-all. We will not come to know Him. We will not possess the saving faith of Ephesians 2:8.
A Study Guide for the Book of Ephesians
Every member of the godly remnant, the victorious saints, will be tested to the core. Utter, total, faithful, consistent obedience to the Father must be demonstrated beyond all doubt if we are to ride with the Lord Jesus in the Day of the Lord. It is suffering that creates rulers. The crown is produced by the cross.
Our responsibility is to choose with all the determination we possess to obey God’s truth. We are to announce our choice vigorously and continually to the Lord and, on suitable occasions, to the saints around us. For our words will stand in the Day of Christ either to justify us or to condemn us.
In the present hour, as the Day of the Lord draws near, the saint who is caught off guard for one hour may pay for his carelessness with grief and anguish that will require years to heal and repair.
A Study Guide for the Book of Ephesians
The Day of the Lord will be a frightful time for the hypocrites in the Christian churches; for those who are wasting their God-given gifts and ministries; for those who have not renounced the world, who have not taken up their cross and followed Christ.
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
In the Day of the Lord the messengers of Christ will go forth and separate from the Kingdom of God all who are not truly married to the Lord Jesus. There will be a clear division between those who truly belong to Jesus, who are living in and by Him, and those who bear Christ’s name but who do not live in and by Him. These are the “believers” who are called by the name of Christ but who eat their own food and wear their own clothes.
We will find rest in the day of trouble (the next coming of the Lord Jesus) provided we have been faithful in overcoming the world during our Christian experience. If we have been diligent in serving Christ, have done the things that Christ has required of us, have sought the will of God each day, have presented our body a living sacrifice, have held fast the confidence and rejoicing of our hope firmly to the end, we will find rest in the Day of the Lord. But that Day shall dawn in fire! The Day of the Lord is not, as some have supposed, a gala time, a joyous holiday. The Day of the Lord is the worst time of judgment and trouble ever to come on our sin-cursed earth. It will be “the day of trouble”!
The Tabernacle of the Congregation
Today we do not have a disciplined people drawn up for battle. Rather, we have congregations of believers who are in delusion regarding the need for righteous living and who are following a false vision of the Day of the Lord. They are morally weak, lukewarm toward Christ, disobedient to God, full of sin and spiritual pride, involved in the things of the world, undisciplined, an abomination to the fundamental Jews who are striving to obey the Torah, and the prey of every money-loving, self-exalting teacher of the Bible.
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
The common Christian belief is that all believers in Christ, whether or not there has been a crucifixion of the will, shall ascend, upon their physical death, to the spiritual Jerusalem and enter the Presence of Christ and God. There they shall continue to obey their own wills, to pursue their own pleasures as always, until the Day of Christ, at which time they will be placed on thrones as the lords of the creation.
They never have learned to obey God and yet they will rule the nations of the earth. This would be a greater disaster than the rebellion of Eden! It is only the diligent Christians, those who have entered the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, being conformed to His death, who will be in places of authority. Only those who have accepted the work of the Holy Spirit in the conquering of their self-seeking will be entrusted with the rod of iron. Only the victorious saints will rule the nations of the earth.
The common teaching of the Church is that when the Lord returns we will be changed from what we are into mighty rulers of the universe. It is supposed that we will be entrusted with great power and glory in the Day of the Lord. The truth is, the Day of the Lord will bring a revealing of what we are in our inner nature. Our outer form will reflect that which is true of our inner nature. All will be transparent in that Day! To occupy ourselves with externals, even with ministry, and not to cultivate the growth of our inner nature, is to prevent our entrance into the Kingdom of God.
This is what the Spirit is saying to the churches in the present hour.
The Revealing of the Sons of God
We can see that we Christians must grow much more in the Lord before we will be ready to ride with Christ in the Day of the Lord. The vision of weak, immature believers being caught up to meet the Lord Jesus when He appears so they can escape Antichrist is false. It is not a scriptural vision. The true vision of the Day of the Lord is the coming of a large, powerful, fierce army.
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
When the Day of the Lord is mentioned there sometimes is a reference to an army of saints who will appear along with Christ. These are the sons of God. The sons of God who are to be revealed at the coming of the Lord are, as we understand it, a firstfruits of the entire Church, a Gideon’s army, a holy, warlike remnant of saints who will be used by the Lord to destroy all the works of Satan from the earth. Those who ride with the Lord in that Day will not be new believers who barely are saved but mature saints who have been tested again and again in the fires of tribulation and temptation.
The greatest surprise we shall experience during the Day of the Lord is that there will be no surprise. Everything will be exactly as the Word has stated. The rewards to the victorious saints will be fantastic beyond their dreams. The punishments of the lazy and wicked will be more painful than we can imagine. Let us believe every Word of God, for all shall come to pass literally, just as the Scriptures declare.
A Study Guide for The Book of Second Corinthians
The salvation that will be given to us at the appearing of Christ is the consequence of what we have become and have practiced in Christ. The currently expressed concept that what will happen to us in the Day of Christ is unrelated to our behavior in this world is false. It is a deception from the enemy of our souls. Grace does not operate to give to sinners the rewards of the righteous; rather, grace operates to make sinners righteous so God can reward them according to their righteous behavior. The belief that we shall be rewarded anyway, even though we have not served Christ as we should, is the most terrible deception of our day.
There is spiritual darkness today and it will become increasingly dark as the days go by. Already there is much deception among Evangelical-Charismatic believers. Many Christian people are seeking material treasures rather than the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Few have put the seeking of the Kingdom first in their lives. At the same time, Christ stands at the door of each heart.
To those who hear His voice and open the everlasting door of their soul, the King of Glory will come in. The Lord of armies will enter and prepare the individual for the Day of the Lord. The conflict of the ages is upon us. Unprecedented tribulation is at hand. Unprecedented glory is available. It is time now to take the Kingdom. Let every true saint arise and enter the fullness of God. The coming of Christ is at hand. He shall divide the spoil with the strong.
Tabernacles, and the Coming of the Lord
PARTICIPANTS IN THE DAY OF THE LORD
Will Receive a Body that Reflects Their Spiritual Development
The teaching of the New Testament is that when the Lord Jesus Christ returns He will reward each of us according to his works. It is our belief that if the believers understood they were going to be rewarded in the Day of Christ according to their conduct, their deeds, they would behave in a different manner.
The Scriptures mentions crowns, robes, and white raiment. The crowns portray the authority that will be given to the conquerors. The robes and raiment speak, we believe, of that which will cover our resurrected flesh and bones in the Day of the Lord.
Sometimes the house from Heaven, that with which we shall be clothed in the Day of the Lord, is referred to as a crown of life, or a crown of righteousness, or a white garment.
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
The white raiment with which the members of the Wife of the Lamb are clothed in the Day of the Lord is the righteous conduct of people who have been transformed through their living relationship with Christ (Revelation 19:8). It is a “house from heaven” that is formed as the believer sows his body to the death of the cross and lives in the resurrection Life of the Lord.
The “fine linen” of Revelation 19:8 is an important aspect of the resurrection from the dead, of the Day of the Lord. As we, through the Spirit, put to death the deeds of our physical body, a robe of white linen is being woven in Heaven. The robe of white linen is the power to live righteously. We shall be clothed with that robe at the coming of the Lord Jesus. The robe of righteous behavior is the garment of salvation.
Receiving the rewards in our material body in the Day of Resurrection establishes a material expression of the ruling spiritual nature that has been developed in our personality. There is an important practical application of what has just been stated. It is that in the Day of Christ our material body will be raised from the dead and then transformed according to our state of spiritual development at that time. The current concept that we will be given bodies like the body of Jesus even though we are spiritually immature is a misleading, destructive idea.
The Release of the Material Creation
It is impossible to overstate the necessity, the urgency for today’s Christian people to understand the Kingdom law of sowing and reaping. What we are sowing we shall reap. If we are sowing to our first man, our first, natural personality, we will reap corruption in the Day of Christ. The first nature is corrupt. Our first personality will be raised from the dead—to face what?
If we give ourselves to the Holy Spirit, diligently following the Lord each moment, we will stand before the Lord in that day in newness of life. It will not be a redeemed first personality standing before the Lord Jesus, it will be a new creation that has been fashioned from His Life just as Eve was fashioned from the substance of Adam. We will enter life in that day because we have become life. We will enter a body and an environment compatible with that which has been developed in our spiritual personality.
In the Day of Christ the Life of Christ that has been formed in our entire personality, in our spirit, in our soul, and in our house from Heaven, will be revealed. The revelation of Christ’s Life in the people that form the Body of Christ, the Church, will release the material creation from the bondage of corruption and bring the saved peoples of the earth into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
The Lord’s firstfruits have overcome the world and have received in their spiritual personalities the rewards to the overcomer. Now, in the Day of Christ, their resurrected bodies will receive the material counterparts of those rewards. They are God’s kings and priests and will reign with Him to the ages of ages.
The Release of the Material Creation
Notice that the members of the Bride are arrayed in their own righteous conduct, a righteous conduct resulting from their abiding in Christ. As Christ dwells in us His righteous Nature begins to be revealed in our conduct. Each righteous act proceeding from Him and developed in our behavior has the effect of weaving a robe of militantly righteous and holy behavior, a robe that appears before the Throne of God in Heaven. In the Day of the Lord, each saint will be clothed with the robe woven from his Christ-filled conduct on the earth.
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
The coming of Christ will be a time of harvesting what we have sown. If we have been sowing the lusts of our flesh we will reap corruption and destruction in the Day of Christ. If we have been sowing the fruit of the Holy Spirit we will reap salvation, righteousness, and indestructible eternal life in the Day of Christ. The harvest will come in the form of the body that will clothe our resurrected mortal body. If we have been living in the Holy Spirit we will be clothed with a glorious body of eternal life. If we, being a Christian, have chosen to live according to the desires of the flesh and soul, we will be clothed with a corrupt garment that reflects the corruption in our personality.
A Study Guide for the Book of Galatians
The perfect gift of the Day of the Lord is a resurrected material form that expresses completely and perfectly our spiritual nature. The believer in Christ who does not press forward as a victorious saint will suffer incomprehensible loss in the Day of the Lord. His body will reflect what he is in spiritual personality. His spiritual nakedness will be revealed in the nakedness of his material form. He will not reveal in his resurrected body the life, the glory, the authority, the union with God and Christ that are true of the overcomer. His body will be as weak as his spirit, as far from Christ as his spirit, as lacking in glory as his spirit. As we sow, so shall we reap.
The Release of the Material Creation
In the Day of the Lord, resurrection life will clothe our mortal body. We then shall be redeemed completely. In view of our coming total redemption, which will include the redemption of our mortal body that gives us so much trouble at the present time, we need to be sowing to the Spirit of God and not to the lusts of our flesh. If we Christians sow to our flesh, living all the time to appease the desires of our flesh and fleshly mind, we will die spiritually even though we are believers. If we keep a strong hand of discipline on the inclinations of our fleshly body and give ourselves to the things of Christ, we will reap eternal life in spirit, soul, and body.
The Seven Furnishings of the Tabernacle of the Congregation
We shall be clothed with our own righteous works. If we allow God to bring us into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ in the present world, then we will come to know the power of His resurrection in the ages to come. If we choose instead to walk in the lusts of our body and soul, we will reap corruption. We will be a naked spirit in the Day of the Lord, perhaps saved, perhaps lost to the Presence and purposes of God for eternity.
A Study Guide for The Book of Second Corinthians
Overcomers Shall Appear with Him to Rule the Material Creation
In the Day of Christ, the Kingdom of God, which is Christ and those in whom Christ is dwelling, will be revealed in the fullness of the power of God for all nations to behold (John 17:21-23).
A Study Guide for the Book of Galatians
In the Day of the Lord, Christ will appear with His ruling, perfected spirits, His victorious saints (Hebrews 12:23). They, with Him and through Him, will take over the rulership of the material creation (Daniel 7:22).
The Release of the Material Creation
The purpose of the Day of the Lord is to establish the reign of Christ over the nations of the earth. When the Lord returns He will receive His inheritance, which is the nations and the farthest reaches of the earth.
When Jesus returns He will exercise power that will crush the armies of the world and enforce God’s will in the earth. If we are victorious saints we too will rule the nations with an iron rod. The iron rod is the irresistible might of the Spirit of God who will be abiding in the saints in the Day of Christ.
The Day of Christ will be one of darkness and gloominess, and this is why the Lord’s people are to tremble. The anger of God is exceedingly great, and Christ is coming to execute judgment on the nations of the earth and on those believers who did not remain faithful to Him.
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
In the Day of Christ we shall be given increased power to behave righteously, in fact, to rule with the crown and sceptre that enforce righteousness upon mankind (Hebrews 1:8; Revelation 2:26,27).
The Scripture is clear that the judgment of God, during the Day of the Lord, will be administered by His saints (Psalms 149:5-9; Malachi 4:3; I Corinthians 6:2,3; Jude 1:14,15; for example).
If we do the will of Christ in the bearing of the true witness of God, then, in the Day of Christ, we will be privileged to bring the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord to the whole earth, setting the physical creation free from the chains of futility and corruption with which it has been bound since the time of the rebellion of Adam and Eve.
There was only one tree of life in the midst of the garden of Eden. In the Day of the Lord there will be very many trees of life growing along the banks of the River of Life. The one tree is Jesus. The “very many trees” are the saints growing out from the roots of Jesus.
The Requirements and Purposes of the Two Resurrections
We in whom Christ is being formed are becoming an integral part of His glorious appearing to the world. Every saint who will permit God to form Christ in him represents an increase in the Glory of Christ to be revealed to this world in the Day of the Lord.
In the Day of the Lord the glory of Christ will arise on us. Then the nations of the earth will believe in Christ. A portion of that fullness of glory is given to us even now so we may serve Him until He comes.
If the Christian is faithful in his present tasks God will entrust greater responsibility to him. In the Day of the Lord he will be given a position of service in the Kingdom of God. Opportunities for service is a treasure that the Lord Jesus will bring from Heaven with Him.
The rivers of living water that will cover the earth in the Day of Christ will flow from the personalities of Christ’s saints.
Those who serve the Lord today, performing His righteous works, will be blessed of the Lord. Their light will help to save those around them. In the Day of Christ they will shine as the stars. Their light today is as a day star heralding the morning of the great Day. This is true of the way of the righteous.
The most prominent feature of the Day of the Lord is the “great people and a strong” (Joel 2:2). Christ could have established His Kingdom at His first appearing, two thousand years ago. The establishing of the Kingdom of God has had to await the creation of the large and mighty army that is destined to appear with Christ and to work with Him in cleansing sin and rebellion from the face of the earth. The Day of the Lord will be characterized by the sudden appearing of a strong people clothed in immortal bodies who will go through the earth, burning up the works of the flesh with Divine fire. This is the true vision of the Day of the Lord, the Day of Christ.
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
The coming of the Lord will be the great and terrible Day of the Lord spoken of by the Hebrew Prophets. It will not be the removal of a fleshly group of churchgoers so they will not be harmed by the terrors of Antichrist and the great tribulation. Rather the future will be marked by unprecedented revival, terrible tribulation, and then unbelievable glory as the saints of all ages arise in their bodies of glory and shake terribly the earth.
The sun and the moon shall be darkened. The archangel Michael shall thunder his commands to the invincible legions of warrior angels. Almighty God shall issue the Word of ultimate power. Jesus the Christ, the Lord of all, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords, surrounded by Michael’s chosen host of giant warriors, accompanied by the called, chosen, and faithful of mankind, will appear for every eye to see.
From the sky the Commander in Chief will summon His faithful witnesses from the earth. Together with the glorified kings and judges the saints still alive shall be transformed into incorruptible resurrection life and then caught up in the sight of the wicked into the clouds to be placed in their ranks in the Lord’s army. The day of the large and powerful army has come.
The True Hope: “Rapture” or Resurrection?
FAITH
INTRODUCTION TO FAITH
The popular Christian definition of faith has to do with our acceptance and confession of the facts of the atonement and the resurrection.
The scriptural definition of faith is found in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. If we assemble the behavior of all the people mentioned by name in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we have the scriptural definition of faith. These people are all from the Old Testament, revealing to us that no person ever was saved by the Law of Moses or by any other program of works. The saints, whether of the Old Testament or the New Testament, always are declared righteous on the basis of their faith.
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is a record of people who by patient continuance in well-doing were seeking for glory and honor and immortality. What did they gain? They gained eternal life in the Presence of God.
But the eleventh chapter of Hebrews does not mention anyone’s acceptance and confession of the facts of the atonement and the resurrection. Such acceptance on the part of an individual to whom Christ has granted true faith is only the doorway to the life of faith, the life of humble dependence on God. It is righteous behavior that leads to eternal life, not the acceptance and confession of the facts concerning the Divine redemption.
Hebrews, Chapter 11 does not mention acceptance or confession of theological facts. Rather, it portrays an attitude of heart and mind that causes the faithful to spend their lives in obedience to God and in the single-minded pursuit of the city that has foundations, the new Jerusalem.This is the faith that saves. Saving faith properly can be rendered “faithfulness.” Scriptural “faith” is faithfulness to God. It is not an attempt to escape the consequences of sin against the moral law of God by professing belief in Christ.
We must persevere in Christian behavior to the end of our days if we expect to be saved. The righteous are saved with difficulty, according to the Scriptures (I Peter 4:18). The expression “saved with difficulty” means, from the context, that fiery trials save us by purifying our spirit.
Fiery trials save us if we continue in faith toward God. However, if we do not respond correctly to the fiery trials by continuing in faith toward God, but instead blame people or God for our pain, then our suffering produces bitterness in us rather than righteousness and eternal life.
Christians Shall Be Rewarded According to Their Works!
DEFINING FAITH
Beyond Belief in Doctrine… A Life of Obedience to God
Faith is not belief in doctrine as some have supposed. Faith is the response of the individual to the calling of God on his life. Faith is the same in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Holy Spirit in James pointed out the danger of depending on the type of faith that is not true scriptural faith at all but a mental grasp of the facts of theology.
The true Christian discipleship is typified by the journey from Egypt to Canaan. The Christian life is not one of static mental assent to doctrine but of daily pressing forward in faith. The just do not live by doctrinal faith but by personal, experimental faith in the living Lord Jesus. They are pressing forward to the saving of their souls.
In the Scriptures, true faith is synonymous with obedience and unbelief is synonymous with disobedience. Currently the terms belief and unbelief are used to describe our acceptance or rejection of the truth of certain theological facts, or to get, or fail to get, what we want by magic.
The demons know the facts of the spirit realm and of the Divine plan of redemption. It is not our assent to these facts that brings salvation, it is our obedience to God.
Faith in God, which is inseparably connected with the wholesome fear of God, is revealed in what we do. Who can know whether he truly possesses faith in God? Because we state that we do? The fires of testing and tribulation reveal the condition of our faith. If we love Christ and believe in Him we will do what He says. We will keep His word. We will feed His lambs and His sheep. We can say that we love Christ, that we believe in Him. But it is our actions that give final proof.
The faith of today’s Christianity is not always true faith in the Lord Jesus because true faith in the Lord Jesus leads to a new creation. Faith in the Lord is a continuing relationship with the living Jesus in every detail of life. Today’s “faith” tends to be a belief about Jesus. The demons have no faith in the Lord Jesus but they do indeed have a belief about Jesus.
One aspect of the current deception of Christians is the way faith, or belief, is being defined. The present definition of faith is not in line with the Scriptures. The Scriptural meaning of faith is obedience, that is, works of righteousness according to God’s will (Hebrews, Chapter Eleven). Faith without works is dead! useless! vain! Doctrinal “faith” does not bring salvation. In order to be accounted worthy we must do the works of watching and praying. Only then will we escape deception.
The reason so many Christians are deceived today is that they do not watch and pray. They have not been found worthy of escaping the seductions of the last days and they will fall (and already have fallen) before the material and spiritual seductions of the Antichrist spirit.
It is not possible to have fellowship with God solely on our profession of faith in Christ. Fellowship with God is possible only as we walk righteously and speak uprightly (I John 1:6). The righteous always have walked by faith in God. This was and is true under all covenants. Living by faith means that God rather than sin and self is the center of our personality, our motives, and our actions.
The expression “the righteous shall live by faith” is being employed today to mean that if we profess a correct theological position our sins will not be held against us. This is not what the expression means. The just shall live by faith is an Old Testament declaration that indicates men ought to live by humble dependence on God and not by means of their own wisdom and strength.
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews was written as a definition of the just shall live by faith, and there is no suggestion in this chapter that the just shall live by faith means that if we profess a correct theological position our sins will not be held against us.
If a Christian does not behave righteously, his profession of faith will not save him.
The Destruction of Righteousness
The issue is not one of believing or not believing in theological facts but of pressing forward towards God’s will or drawing back from God. Faith lives only in works. There is no such thing as abstract faith, a faith that does not live and move and have its being in works. Faith apart from works is dead.
We are not resurrected by grace, or by “faith,” except as faith is defined as following God in stern obedience. The faith that redeems us has little to do with our agreement with doctrine. True faith is our obedience to what God has revealed to us.
The Protestant reformers, in their determination to get away from the domination of Rome, stressed that we are justified by faith alone. By this they meant that we are not to add to salvation the traditions of the Catholic Church. But, as in the case of Paul and his exhortations to the Judaizers, modern-day expositors are declaring that faith alone means we are justified apart from moral transformation. Again, this is an inappropriate argument because salvation is moral transformation. Salvation is the new creation.
The First and Second Resurrections
The bulk of the writings of the New Testament, including the four Gospels, have more to say about righteous living than they do about pleasing God through belief. We use the term belief, rather than faith because there is a difference between belief, as the word often is used, and the faith that is a transforming grasp on God and His Word.
In some instances, belief is nothing more than a mental assent to spiritual facts. We may believe that Christ is the Lord and Savior of the world. The devils themselves are aware of this fact. Yet, their “faith” does not save them. True faith is a grasp on God such that what we read in the Scriptures begins to change what we are, what we do, what we perceive, what we know, what we say. Theological belief and knowledge will not save us. It is our personal, living faith in Christ that brings forth a new creation in our personality. The Christian salvation is more than anything else a new creation is us.
The “righteousness which is of God by faith” has little to do with the theological facts of redemption. It is not mere belief in the death and resurrection of Christ. The righteousness that is of God by faith is our continual entering into the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, accompanied by our evaluation of all else as trash.
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
True faith always recognizes that the Christian redemption is an opportunity for glory. Salvation never is handed to us apart from true faith, the faith that works through obedience to the written Word and to the personally revealed Word of God.
Our confession of faith in Christ, when we come to Him for the first time in repentance of heart and mind, is our entrance into the race for eternal life. Our initial experience of salvation is by no means the fullness of eternal life, it is only the beginning—a firstfruits.
Attaining to the First Resurrection
“Faith” must be defined as obedience to God rather than mental assent to the Divinity of Jesus. The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, the “faith” chapter of the Scriptures, does not so much as mention belief in doctrine of any kind. Rather the faith of the saints of old was a faith that resulted in obedience to the will of God. The meaning of I John 5:4,5 is that true faith, true belief that Jesus is the Son of God, results in our overcoming the world.
The individual who overcomes the world is the one who has faith in the Lord Jesus—that Christ has come in the flesh and that Christ is the Lord Jesus. This person, because of his sincere adherence to the truth, will be able to overcome the lust that is in the world. It is not the belief that is of itself the victory. Rather it is that a true belief will always result in victorious living. This concept follows the exhortation to holy living that is found throughout the Book of First John.
“The righteous shall live by faith” means God will receive the individual who lives his life in humble dependence on God (through Christ now that Christ has come). But Christian tradition interprets this fundamental Kingdom principle to mean God will receive the individual who professes certain facts of theology (facts known to the demons) whether or not the individual lives in faithfulness before God.
The current definition and practice are contrary to the Scriptures. They teach that the righteous do not live by faith in God but by a statement of belief. According to this false teaching it is not necessary that we live in humble dependence on God, only that we profess the correct theology. That may not be what theologians intend to convey but it certainly is being understood this way by a multitude of God’s people. The result of the misunderstanding has been the destruction of the testimony of the Christian churches. The testimony of Christ always must be of righteous, holy, and obedient behavior, not of theological belief divorced from behavior.
Christians Shall Be Rewarded According to Their Works!
Faith and love are revealed by our actions, not by our words alone.
Faith apart from works is dead. No person can be saved by a dead faith.
THE NATURE OF FAITH
“Faith Without Works Is Dead”
The doctrine of salvation “by faith alone” is totally unscriptural, totally destructive.
Faith can live only in works of righteousness. In fact, the grace of God saves us so we can practice righteous works, not so we can flee from the earth and go to live in the realm of bodiless spirits.
There is no such thing as salvation by an abstract “faith.” Faith without works is dead. A dead faith, a faith not expressed in works, cannot redeem any human being.
Antinomianism, the belief that the Christians are not bound by any commandment, pervades Christian teaching. The truth is that there are numerous commandments in the New Testament that must be obeyed if we are to be found worthy of the Kingdom of God. Faith apart from works of righteousness is dead. In fact, salvation itself is the change from lawless behavior to lawful behavior.
One reason for the present error is that the Protestant Reformers were fighting the works of penance of the Roman Catholic Church. Because of the practice of penance the Reformers emphasized that we are justified by faith and not by works. Whenever we are fighting against something we usually overreact. This is what has taken place concerning the balance between imputed righteousness and actual righteousness of behavior.
Another reason for the stress on “faith alone” is the interpretation of the writings of the Apostle Paul as meaning we are saved by grace and faith apart from righteous behavior. In actuality, Paul was comparing faith with the works of the Law of Moses, not with righteous behavior. In several instances Paul claims that believers who practice unrighteousness will not inherit the Kingdom but will slay their own resurrection life. Modern Christian teachers simply will not accept Paul’s warnings as applying to Christians, only to the unsaved. But every principle of biblical interpretation demands that Paul’s warnings apply to Christians, not to the unconverted.
If the Scriptures speak so plainly that Christian people will be rewarded according to their works, where, then, does faith come in? The answer is, faith lives in and is made perfect by works. There is no such thing as faith apart from works. By works we mean behavior that is godly, righteous, holy, obedient to God, always trusting in the Lord and seeking His guidance in every situation. We do not mean the works of the Law of Moses or of any other religion or scheme of people by which they hope to please God apart from Calvary.
Faith without works is dead. Faith has its life only in works. There is no such thing as an abstract faith, a faith without expression in behavior. Faith causes us to choose to yield ourselves to righteous behavior. Righteous behavior bears the fruit of holiness. Holiness brings us directly to eternal life in the Presence of God.
Christians Shall Be Rewarded According to Their Works!
What if there is no evidence of the Life of Christ in us? If there is no evidence of such fruit then we are not abiding in Christ. Our faith is not taking hold on God as it should. Our “faith” may be little more than a mental assent to the facts concerning Christ and redemption.
What we believe in our heart and say with our mouth concerning Christ are important aspects of salvation. Also of importance in the Kingdom of God is the keeping of Christ’s Words—the actual doing of Christ’s works. “Faith without works is dead”.
The idea that the Christian salvation has to do almost exclusively with the forgiveness of our sins and weaknesses cannot be supported by any review of the writings of the New Testament, beginning with the Gospels. From Matthew through Revelation the accent is on godly behavior. If one were to study what Christ stated concerning His return, as recorded by Matthew, he would understand that Christ will judge each believer sternly according to his or her behavior in the world.
Some Christian teachers, noting this emphasis on works in the Gospel accounts, have maintained that the teachings of Christ do not apply to those who are “saved by grace.” (Can you believe that such an abomination actually is being taught!) This is to carve up the Word of God according to our desires. Paul, Peter, John, James, and Jude were adamant concerning the necessity for good works. “Faith without works is dead.” No one is saved by a dead faith!
We already have referred to the fact that the sin in the society of today is resulting from the position of the Christian churches that salvation is belief. If one holds to the correct beliefs he is on his way to Heaven, it is supposed. But since faith apart from works is dead, and righteous works are not considered necessary by Christians, the churches are filled with dead faith. he irony here is that not only is belief stressed in place of behavior, but the belief itself is based on an inaccurate understanding because the true knowledge of the facts of the Kingdom reveals that belief itself is not salvation.
The result of dead faith in the Christian churches is sin in the unchurched society. If the moral light goes out in the Christian churches, then the world has no moral light to walk by.
One of the errors of current Christian thinking is a reliance on imputed righteousness to the exclusion of the righteousness of personality and behavior that comes from the formation of Christ in us. By imputed righteousness the believers mean that God does not see their behavior, God sees only the robe of Jesus’ righteousness that has been placed on them.
This means that if I lie, God sees only the truthfulness of Christ. If I engage in moral filth, God sees only the holiness of Christ. If I refuse to do God’s will in a matter, God sees only the obedience of Christ. This doctrine has destroyed the Christian churches of our day. It springs, at least in part, from the belief of the Protestant Reformers that justification cannot be affected by our behavior—godly or ungodly. The position of the Reformers can easily be shown to be unscriptural by an intelligent student. Faith without works, without corresponding behavior, is dead—worthless as regards salvation.
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
Faith without works is dead, and no person ever will be saved by a dead faith. The believers of today are not being fed a diet nourishing enough to produce conquerors. The wonderful gift of music God has given us is being used in the churches as a substitute for the Presence of God. In fact, music is serving to entertain the saints while the sermons preached are, in many instances, either the dry straw of the traditions of men or the poison of error and deception. None of this will produce the strength required to overcome sin and self-love.
Did not Paul seek the righteousness that is of God by faith (Philippians 3:9)?
Yes, he did. But the majority of Paul’s writings prevent the conclusion that if we profess belief in Christ our conduct no longer becomes critically important in attaining to the first resurrection or any other desirable aspect of our eternal destiny. True faith lives in works. The Scriptures do not teach an abstract faith that exists apart from the behavior of the individual.
The First and Second Resurrections
We Gentiles have interpreted “works” to mean living righteously. But Paul was not contrasting faith and righteous behavior. Paul never would do that because righteous works are the life of faith. Faith apart from righteous behavior is dead. Abraham was not under the Law of Moses. “Works” as applied to Abraham would mean some sort of religious effort. God did require righteous behavior of Abraham, and later in his life a supreme act of obedience in the offering of Isaac.
What is our conclusion? True faith always expresses itself through righteous works and by works faith is made living and effective.
The First and Second Resurrections
Not an Excuse for Ungodly Behavior
The Scriptures are stern when speaking about the future state of those who continue in sin, whether or not they make a profession of faith in Christ (Revelation 2:23; 21:8).
Aspects of the Resurrection of the Saints
The “believer” who makes a profession of faith in Christ and then continues to live in the world, in the sins of his flesh and in his self-centeredness and pride, is ignorant of the plan of salvation. He supposes he is holding a ticket to Heaven and that when he dies the Lord Jesus will protect him from the wrath of God. The truth is, he is dead while he is alive physically even though he professes belief in Christ.
The lie that Antichrist is, the lie that has filled the world for two thousand years, is that man is his own god and must never be allowed to suffer. This is the lie that has produced the “rapture to Heaven” teaching and the concept that Divine grace saves us by “faith alone” apart from godly behavior.
It is important to note in the second and third chapters of Revelation that the Lord Jesus did not speak as though the Christian faith of the believers would cause God to overlook their sins and shortcomings. Christ was judging their works and warning the believers of the consequences of failure to live righteous, holy, and obedient lives before Himself.
The First and Second Resurrections
All sin will be cast into the Lake of Fire. If the believer is not willing to be separated from his sin he will be cast into the Lake of Fire whether or not he professes faith in Christ.
In some instances we Christians have interpreted Paul to mean there is little need for personal holiness on the part of church people, since we are “saved by grace and not by works.” A little reflection will enable us to understand that Paul never would contrast grace and holiness of behavior. Paul was contrasting salvation by faith in Christ and attempts to earn eternal life by keeping the Law of Moses.
Who is more acceptable to God, an honest and upright person who never has heard the name of Jesus, or a sinning, self-seeking, rebellious individual who makes a profession of faith in Jesus but never has served Him (Romans 2:25,26) ? If your answer is that the professing Christian is more acceptable to God, you do not understand God or the new covenant. You have been seduced by the spirit of error in evangelical teaching.
The Destruction of Righteousness
Paul’s teaching concerning imputation (assigned righteousness), the attaining of righteousness by believing what God has stated, has been seriously misunderstood. Paul did not intend that his doctrine of righteousness by faith be interpreted to mean that belief in Christ’s atonement waives the Kingdom law of sowing and reaping. No type or amount of professions of belief can alter the fact that we will receive in the resurrection the consequences of our behavior on the earth.
Aspects of the Resurrection of the Saints
Gentile teachers, not realizing that Paul was contrasting faith in Jesus with the observance of the many facets of the Law of Moses, have concluded that Paul was contrasting faith in Jesus with godly behavior. The irony of this error is that godly behavior is the very thing the Lord came to establish.
Paul stressed that we please God by faith in Christ whom God has sent, that God cannot be satisfied any longer by our observance of the Law of Moses. Then Paul in his letter to the Galatians, as he does in the sixth chapter of Romans, pointed out that our adherence to Christ as the means of our righteousness, apart from obedience to Moses, does not mean that we now are free to sin.
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
The doctrine of evangelical Christianity is that we are saved by God’s grace alone and that good works, works of holiness and righteousness, while they may be commendable, are not a critical aspect of the Christian redemption. Multitudes of believers of our day have been weakened greatly by the insidious idea that faith can be alive in us apart from a change in our behavior.
Those who associate the Divine salvation with mental assent to a theological position concerning Christ are not experiencing the power of deliverance that there is in Christ.
Godly living is the true test of faith. It is impossible to have a living faith in our Lord Jesus Christ without an accompanying transformation of character—a transformation into a holy and blameless life.
Not Presumptuous
None of the Prophets or Apostles of the Lord ever attempted to utilize the Scriptures in a presumptuous manner. Rather, in strict obedience they followed the Lord Himself and stood on what He had told them personally. The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, the “faith chapter,” contains no concept of an aggressive use of the Scriptures to achieve one’s desires.
The incorrect approach of presumptuous faith has become popular in our day because man is becoming a lover of himself. Man is determined to seize power, and if he can force God to move he will do so. Christianity is becoming man-centered. Salvation, and Christ’s love, are being viewed as our natural right—things that God owes us. We hear people speak of God standing ready to do our bidding—and we shudder! We have lost the fear of God. The servants are ready to take dominion over their Lord. Indeed, these are perilous times!
We are not to attempt to use faith to get what we want. We are to use faith in order to better determine the will of the Lord and to perform His will. Attempting to use faith in order to get what we want is man seeking to be like God apart from union with God.
The Charismatic movement is dabbling in metaphysics, in forces not of the physical realm. The believers are being encouraged to bring these forces under their control. Our readiness to enter into metaphysics, into spiritual power not governed by the Lord Jesus, is the product of the grace and rapture teachings. These teachings have set the stage for deception by suggesting God loves man too much to allow Him to suffer. “God will bring us into Paradise if we ask Him to, even though we make no attempt to keep the commandments of God which fill the New Testament writings.”
We hear people say that God has given us a blank check. “Whatever we ask in Jesus’ name we shall receive.” We are to “step out” on the promises and go forth and do “big things for God” by faith. Yet in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, the “faith chapter,” there is no indication whatever that any of the patriarchs were trying to do “big things for God.” The faith of Hebrews, Eleven is the faith of stern obedience to the revealed will of God coupled with belief that God is good and there is a reward for seeking and pleasing Him.
Personal ambition quickly turns to presumption. We jump off the roof of the temple by faith. We try to cash our blank check. Because of this attitude we are candidates for deception. Denominations compete against each other because they are convinced they are correct and the others are not quite as worthy. Often, however, neither knows for certain what the Lord is saying and doing. Why do we turn aside from the truth in this manner? Because our heart is wrong. We are seeking our own glory. This has been true from the days of the building of the Tower of Babel.
Every member of the Body of Christ is a part of every other member. It is not appropriate or scriptural that some Christian people are giving their lives for the Gospel while others are following the ordinary pursuits of mankind; that some believers in Christ are in prison for their faith while others are building bigger houses, buying more expensive automobiles, and worrying about their bank account and the color of the bedroom walls.
It is no surprise that gross errors, such as the “prosperity” gospel and the conceiving of faith as “you get what you say,” have made the inroads they have. The believers are spiritually blind. They are not able to resist the lies of the enemy.
Numerous Christians have not as yet laid down their lives. That is why the so-called “faith message” has been able to make so many inroads. The faith message appeals to people who have not laid down their life for the Gospel. The faith message enables us to get what we want by faith. It is death. It is deception. It is seduction. It is the False Prophet.
We are not to have faith in faith. We are to have faith in the Lord Jesus and to ask the Father in Jesus’ name for the things we need and desire. Imaging is not a form of prayer but of “positive thinking” and it has no place whatever in the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
The heirs of the rest of God, of the “Tabernacles” experience, are those who patiently keep the commandments of God and hold steadfastly to the faith of Jesus. They do not walk in the flesh. They do not attempt to take a shortcut to the fulfillment of the vision God has given them. They do not participate in the faith or prosperity messages or in any other self-realization technique, or follow their own spiritual ambitions. Instead, they wait on the Lord. They “die in the Lord.”
“Imaging,” that is using our imagination to activate faith or to bring to pass by acting out what we wish God would do in the service, is a soulish, metaphysical practice. Imaginary portrayal of what we wish to convey is not the same as Ezekiel laying on his side to convey the knowledge of the Lord’s will. Rather it is of the same source as Zedekiah and his horns of iron.
The Charismatics are in the worst position. They are beginning to engage in metaphysics, such as the using of one’s faith to change the environment according to the desires of the believer. The prosperity message encourages us to use our faith to acquire material wealth. The faith and prosperity messages are in harmony with the Antichrist in that through them man becomes the ruler of the universe.
It does not matter whether or not we get what we want when we want it; but it is of supreme importance that the Lord God get what He wants when He wants it. In current teaching, the Christian faith holds out only pleasure to him who assents verbally and mentally to the facts of the atonement and the resurrection. We are not hearing deny yourself, hate your own life, be faithful to death, endure to the end, carry your cross in obedience to the Lord Jesus.
What we are hearing is, no matter how you behave you will not be punished, or even rebuked, at the Judgment Seat of Christ. This is supposed to be the Word of God to us. The bulk of today’s Christian teaching and preaching is manmade. It cannot be found in the Scriptures.
The Destruction of Righteousness
A study of the men and women of Hebrews, Chapter 11 does not reveal people of adventurous faith who “did big things for God,” who “stepped out in faith” and then challenged God to help them fulfill their dreams. One would suppose, after being exposed to today’s preaching, that this is how the heroes of faith operated. But the concept of “stepping out in faith” does not appear in the Scriptures to our knowledge, except in the instance where Satan tempted Jesus to step off the gable of the temple.
The saints of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews were ordinary, doubting people, just like you and me. They primarily were involved in surviving personally as the Lord brought them through various tests and challenges to their faith. The work of restoration was accomplished through them. The eternal testimony they bore did not proceed from their own plans and strivings. Rather, their contributions flowed from them as naturally as trees bear fruit, being incidental to their day by day obedience to the Lord.
We are not to demand by faith what we want from God. We are not to forget our desires, accepting whatever comes, throwing away our hope and dreams, drifting along in a state of spiritual passivity. Rather, we are to tell God what our hope and dreams are. We ask, in Jesus’ name, for our desires. Then, we press forward in the Lord until we attain our land of promise.
Faith is the substance of these “things” of restoration that are in the process of being brought from the Divine vision into the material realm. We “hope” for the coming of these things because they are not in evidence as yet.
The first principle is that of “obeying the vision.” It is God’s practice to declare a thing to be so when it has not happened as yet in the material world. We then are to live as though it is a fact. This is where faith enters in. Faith is not our declaring something to be true and then acting as though it is true; faith is learning what God has said and then acting as though that is true.
But there is a pitfall here. Our obedience to the vision must be worked out in the Presence of the Lord, in the knowledge of what He is doing in our life at any given time.
If we would be a profitable servant, able to minister successfully to the members of the Body of Christ, we must evaluate how much faith God has given us and then set our expectations accordingly. God does not expect any believer to launch out into some grand and imposing scheme, challenging God to do great things. God requires only that we obey Him in whatever role He assigns to us, whether it be great or small. God will give us enough faith to carry out His will.
It is not the Lord’s will that the saint go about seeking to persuade God to perform the saint’s will. This is why the current “faith message” is so ungodly. It is not our task to persuade God to do anything whether by faith or by any other means. Rather, we are to seek the Lord alone. God works in us, giving us a desire for His will, and then brings to pass His own will. This is the rest of God. Blessed indeed is the person who is content with God and His will.
The soul of man attempts to imitate faith by seizing a passage of Scripture and declaring it to be true in one’s life without going to the Lord to find how to obey the vision. This is the False Prophet (Revelation 13:11). Blind presumption concerning verses of Scripture often is referred to as “faith,” but it is in fact a delusion that appeals to and cultivates the self-centeredness of the believer.
The Lord may tell one individual to step out in faith, to arise from his bed of affliction. He may make real to that person the fact that we already have been healed by the lashes of Christ. When the individual obeys the Lord, complete healing takes place. Some believers may hear of this miracle and tell another sick Christian that he already has been healed “because the Word says so.” They then conclude that any Christian who continues to be ill is guilty of unbelief in the Word of God. This conclusion is not faith, it is presumption. It arises from the love of man for himself coupled with an ignorance of how to obey the Divine vision.
Faith is not a blind statement of the promises of Scripture, declaring that one is healed without having worked out the Divine vision in the Presence of the Lord, in the knowledge of what God is doing in one’s life. Such presumption is of the False Prophet because it attempts to utilize the things of Christ apart from Christ. It is a self-centered attempt to seize Divine power apart from the Presence of the Lord.
Acted Out in Obedience and Humble Dependence upon God
God has given to us the saints, prophets, and apostles of the Old and New Testaments as examples of true faith and patience.
Faith is our statement concerning God’s Character. Faith is different from mental belief, or acknowledgment of theological facts, in that faith always requires and results in action. We demonstrate and establish our faith by the things we think, say, and do. Apart from behavior there is no faith. Works are the life of faith. Faith without works is dead, being alone.
The position of the Protestant Reformers, that we are justified (made acceptable to God) by faith alone, that works are not essential to our redemption, is not a balanced interpretation of the Apostle Paul. It is a reaction against Catholic excesses. The true saint is convinced that God exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. They pursue the Lord with their thoughts, their words, and their actions. Daniel, although highly placed in the government of Babylon revealed the strength of his faith by praying on his knees three times a day—even when it was against the law to do so (Daniel 6:10).
True faith in the Lord Jesus Christ produces honor and integrity in the human personality. The maturing saint learns to act righteously, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. The deceptions prevalent in current Christian thinking work against the producing of actual righteousness, of righteous works, of honor and integrity in the believer in Christ. These teachings are not pardonable misunderstandings of theological details, they are of the spirit of deception. They come from the enemy. They are destroying the work of God.
The Destruction of Righteousness
We must bow the knee to God, turning away from our pride, our arrogance, our haughtiness. We must keep God’s righteous commandments. The Epistles of the New Testament are filled with guides to righteous behavior. We must keep faith in Jesus, guarding the word of His patience.
God never intended doctrinal belief in the Lord Jesus Christ to be a substitute for, an alternative to, true scriptural faith—the faith by which the righteous of all ages have lived. The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, drawing on the lives of the patriarchs, gives us some examples of what it means to live righteously by faith.
No person ever at any time has been found righteous (justified) on any basis other than hope and trust in God. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews teaches us that Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the rest of God’s worthies were justified by faith. That faith was—as it always must be—expressed in their behavior. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews reveals to us the unity, the sameness of God’s relationship with all of His children.
Moses obeyed God, but he was quite reluctant at first. The plagues, the Passover, and the exodus did not come about through the wisdom and strength of Moses and Aaron. They came from God. Moses and Aaron demonstrated their faith by being obedient to the Lord.
The true Christian does not vaunt himself or seek to supplant another. He thinks soberly according to the measure of faith that God has given him. He is at rest in God’s Presence being neither careless nor ambitious regarding his salvation.
The declarations of the Scriptures concerning the Sonship of Jesus, the fact that the angels are to worship Him, that His throne is forever, were read and pondered by the Boy of Nazareth. The Spirit kept guiding and impressing Him through the Law and the Prophets. Jesus walked by faith in the Word of God. Now He is exalted above all, having attained the fullness of His inheritance.
It is our turn. We have the Word. If we are paying attention to the things of salvation as we should, the Spirit is guiding and impressing us through the Word. We must walk by faith in the Word of God for we too are God’s sons. We too have been called to indescribable glory.
The rewards of life, authority, opportunity for service, and nearness to God that traditionally have been associated with belief in Jesus are promised only to the overcomers. Being a member of the royal priesthood, a member of the Body of the Christ, a part of the Wife of the Lamb, must be attained. Because all of the rewards are ours at the moment of receiving the Lord, the conclusion has been drawn that they are ours forever by “faith” and without any effort on our part.
The writings of the New Testament hardly support the position that we share in Christ by grace through faith without any effort on our part. Yet, this is the prevailing understanding among evangelical Christians. Scriptures can be found that appear to support the view that we have everything by faith the moment we receive Jesus. Scriptures also can be found that support the view that we must labor to make our election certain and that we are to “work out” our salvation with fear and trembling. We must endure to the end if we would possess our soul, if we would be saved.
The Christian who does his church duties, but whose principal energies and time are occupied with the acquiring of money and goods, is demonstrating that he does not believe God will reward him if he seeks God. He is demonstrating his belief that money will reward him if he seeks money. He may profess faith in Christ but his faith is in money—in the things he can see and handle. Our true faith, trust, and hope are revealed in our behavior, not in our mental acceptance of doctrine.
The error of our day is the teaching that it is enough to make a profession of faith in Jesus. The Book of Revelation, as is true of the bulk of the text of the New Testament, stresses the works of righteousness which always proceed from true faith in Christ.
It appears that the majority of Christian preachers, evangelists, pastors, and teachers of our day are teaching error. The result is, the people are terribly unprepared to meet God. The Scriptures state that we attain to the first resurrection by overcoming the Beast, his image, and his mark. Let every person who adds to or subtracts from this statement consider the dreadful curse with which the Book of Revelation is bound (Revelation 22:18,19).
To those who teach that by accepting Jesus we automatically are overcomers, let us respond by pointing out that it is evident the majority of persons who have “accepted Jesus” today still are governing themselves, are worshiping money, are serving the world, are worldly in their thinking, and never have laid down their life in order that Christ may live in them. Therefore, to say that “accepting Jesus” (as we use the term—for it indeed is not a true acceptance of Christ) automatically makes us an overcomer is false and destructive of the Christian redemption.
The rise and fall of Israel as a nation was not related to its belief in the Law or lack of it, except as faith is defined to mean obedience and righteousness. Theological faith was not at issue. The Ten Commandments have to do with deeds of righteousness, not with an assertion of the truth of the Torah. The Pharisees stumbled over this very point.
The same is true today. Revival power has left the Christian churches, not because of a lack of belief in the virgin birth or the Divinity of Christ but because of the prevailing sin and disobedience to God. The need today is for repentance, not for an abstract belief that there is a God, or for “faith” to get out of God what we want. This is the False Prophet who is to come. The modern preaching of faith is a deadly error. It is the opposite of what God wants. The “faith” preaching largely ignores righteousness of conduct. It is man-centered. It has little to do with Christ, with the glorifying of the law of God. It is a delusion, a snare, a deception sent from the enemy of God. God is interested in bringing forth righteousness and praise in the sight of the nations of the earth.
We are to learn how to work with the Lord instead of for Him. It requires faith to enter the rest of God—faith that God is in control and knows what He is doing. God is building His Church. God is reaching out and saving people from all walks of life. Our task as we enter the rest of God, into our inheritance in the Lord, is to be obedient to what God is telling us.
THE PROCESS OF FAITH
A Daily Fight
We have been foreknown, predestined, called, and justified in order that we may then, through the authority of the Lord Jesus and the power of the Spirit of God, fight the good fight of faith until we attain glorification in Christ.
From Justification to Glorification
Each day either death prevails or life prevails. The gate is narrow and the way is resistant that lead to eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Way to life. We enter through Him, and then the struggle begins. The warfare that the saint wages is not, ordinarily, a physical or even a mental struggle. Rather, it is a spiritual struggle that works in terms of faith and patience.
The spiritual currents are swift, and that is why there are many warnings in the Book of Hebrews concerning our tendency to become careless after we have made a profession of Christ, not pursuing our inheritance with the fullness of vigor and determination that is required. It is impossible to attain our inheritance in Christ unless we fight the good fight of faith all the days of our life. God will accept nothing less than the best effort of which we are capable. He stands ready to assist all who call on Him in sincerity.
The believer who embraces the Lord, sharing each day in the death and triumphant resurrection of Christ, reveals in himself or herself both the faith and the fruit that go together to form the true salvation that God has given to us in Christ our Lord.
Because our calling is so high, because there are so many dangerous enemies seeking to undermine our efforts, and because we must endure a transition from being solely human to being both son of man and son of God, we must press the battle every day of our discipleship on the earth. We never can relax our vigilance. God will chasten us vigorously because we are His sons. We must continue in faith and prayer or else the trials and battles will bring us down to discouragement and defeat.
If we would attain the promised salvation we must continue steadfastly in faith and assurance, conquering, through Christ, our attempt to live by material bread alone, our love of sinful pleasure, and our own willingness to walk in our own way instead of continually seeking the will of God in every detail of life.
The Destruction of the Last Enemy
“Man cannot live by bread (the material world) alone” is an important principle of the Kingdom. Man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Our daily strength and provisions come to us from God. We are to find our security and comfort in the invisible God who provides for us each day of our life. It is much easier to grasp what we can see. To live by faith in the invisible God is difficult, but it is necessary if we are to inherit the Kingdom of God.
The Continuity of the Testaments
If we would perceive salvation as a state of acceptance to God that indeed begins at a definite point of putting our faith in the Lord Jesus, and then must be pursued throughout out lifetime with all diligence, we would avoid the deadly complacency that has destroyed the spiritual life of the churches in the wealthy nations.
Attaining to the Out-resurrection
Jude teaches that while God brings us out of Egypt on eagles’ wings, we must persevere in faith and patience throughout the distresses and deprivations of the wilderness. If we do not, the plan of redemption is brought to a halt. We are not permitted to continue to the rest of God, to Canaan, to the goal that God has ordained for us.
Having grasped the principle of grace operating through election and through our faith in the promise of God, our task is to lay hold firmly upon the promise in order that we may press on toward our inheritance with every bit of our attention and energy.
When we receive the Lord Jesus the Christ, placing our faith and trust in Him for salvation, righteousness is ascribed to us by the Lord. Also, the door to eternal life and glory is opened to us. How much eternal life and glory we gain depends on the faith and diligence we apply to seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
We always must be fiercely determined to do the will of God. To those who may insist we will receive our inheritance whether or not we press into the rest of God, whether or not we serve Christ with all sincerity, who claim salvation is not based upon our response of daily faith and perseverance, let us point out that to take this attitude is to walk on slippery ground as far as the Book of Hebrews is concerned. Since one’s eternal salvation is at stake it seems wiser to see what is to be gained by seeking Christ with total diligence rather than to wait to discover the end of those who neglect their salvation.
“The just shall live by faith” has come to mean that if we make an affirmation of faith in Christian doctrine, in the facts of the atonement and the resurrection, then it no longer is essential that we behave righteously. We will “go to Heaven” when we die. This is to equate living by faith with holding a correct doctrinal position concerning the Christian religion. But this is not the statement of Habakkuk. Habakkuk was contrasting living in humble dependence on the Lord with living in one’s own pride and self-sufficiency. He was not contrasting believing in the facts of the atonement with not believing in the facts of the atonement.
The child readily enters the Kingdom of Heaven because it is not proud, not filled with its own wisdom and strength. The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews defines what it means to live “by faith.” We obtain the righteousness of faith, not merely by making an initial statement of faith in Christ but by living each day in dependence on Christ, seeking the Lord with all our heart. The Kingdom of Heaven is God in Christ in the saints performing God’s will, whether in the heavens or on the earth. The proud, the rich, the self-sufficient, are filled with their own ways. They are not filled with God and His Christ. Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven does not belong to them.
Entering the Kingdom of Heaven
There is a common faith that exists among all the saints of God no matter under what covenant they learn to walk with God. All of them were and are declared to be righteous because of their trust in the Lord, their hope of a better world wherein dwells righteousness, and their continual seeking of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, of a city that has foundations.
The holy Scriptures assert that the righteous must press forward in faith at all times or else they will draw back to destruction. To be saved we must “endure to the end.”
The Trial of Our Faith Works Transformation
Living in total consecration and in faith in God brings us into the power of the first resurrection (Philippians 3:7-14).
If our faith is of the right kind, a change into Christ’s moral image will take place. Faith will bring about the desired results. The Seed of Christ will grow in us if we keep it in a healthful environment (Luke 8:15).
When the Apostle Paul was laboring to throw off the yoke being imposed by the Judaizers he stressed that under the old covenant men gained life by doing the works of the Law, but under the new covenant life comes by faith in Christ. This is true. But Paul was not contrasting godly and ungodly behavior, saying that under the first covenant men gained life by godly behavior and under the new covenant ungodly men gain life by professing faith in Jesus. This would make Paul and the Lord Jesus defenders of sinful behavior. Rather, Paul was pointing out that under the old covenant men gained life by acting according to the righteous principles of the Law and statutes of Moses, whereas under the new covenant men gain life by becoming new creations in Christ, the evidence of the transformation being righteous, holy, and obedient behavior.
Hebrews Chapters Three and Four teach us concerning belief and obedience and of the rest of God. Belief and obedience are true faith and bring us into the rest of God. As we seek to follow God every motive of our personality is revealed for what it is so we can detect the spirit of the world, lust, Satan, and self-glorification.
Both Paul and Peter warned that the doctrine of imputation can be interpreted incorrectly. Paul’s doctrine of ascribed righteousness can be distorted to mean that the Christian salvation is an undemanding gift and requires no action on our part in order to gain the values contained in it. The Apostle James found it necessary to warn the Lord’s flock that true faith in Christ is expressed in action.
Christ destroyed completely the legal claims of Satan on those who receive Christ by faith. But the Christian also must overcome. The believer must overcome the resistance of the world, the flesh, and the devil each day of his sojourn on earth. The believer does this by availing himself by faith of the grace and equipment offered to him by the Spirit of God (Ephesians 6:10-18).
The true saint finds that his faith and trust are being challenged every day of his sojourn on the earth. Sometimes he despairs even of life. But if he does not turn away from the Lord, the Lord always provides a solution for every distress. The older saints know this well.
While we are in the wilderness of testing and waiting our faith and obedience are being perfected, and we are learning to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Jesus.
We show our faith by our obedience to the written Word of God and to the personal directions the Lord gives us. The true saint spends much time in the Word of God and is carefully and diligently obedient when the Lord speaks to Him. Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the other patriarchs showed their faith by their stern obedience to God. The person who does not obey the written Word, or the Word of God to him personally, does not have saving faith. He may believe in the facts of the atonement and resurrection but he does not have a faith in God that will save him and transform him into the image of Christ. He is not convinced of the goodness and integrity of God’s Character. His is not a conquering personality.
Christ had to walk by faith in God, as all the other sons of God are required to do. Jesus was tested as we are. Satan attempted to plant doubt in Christ’s mind that He is the Son of God. Jesus had to overcome the adversary by faith in the Father’s Word just as each of us has to overcome the adversary by faith in the Father’s Word.
As Christ settles down to rest in us He deals with everything in us that is contrary to God’s Personality. The dealings of the Lord as He accomplishes our total sanctification can result in enormous upheavals and misunderstandings. Our part is to look steadfastly to Jesus and to continue patiently in faith until the rest in God that we desire so fervently has been gained perfectly and completely.
We conquer tribulation through faith in Christ’s resurrection and faith in our participation in that resurrection. We are an inseparable part of His Life, His resurrection.
Paul had abandoned Moses in order that his righteousness might proceed from faith in Christ alone—not the type of faith that is mere belief in doctrine but the faith that is a life lived in the Presence of the Lord, life guided and empowered by the righteous Nature of Christ. How can he be released from Moses? By being crucified with Christ. How can Paul be released from sinful behavior? By living in Christ and Christ in him. The answer to Moses and to sin is entrance into Christ’s crucifixion and entrance into Christ’s resurrection.
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
By faith we assign our whole first personality to die on the cross with Jesus.
The Cross and the New Creation
Our task is to believe in Christ and to demonstrate our belief by obeying Him in all He requires of us. As we demonstrate faith by obeying Christ we continue in the process of deliverance.
The cross is a pinnacle. We are not to jump from it “by faith in God’s Word.” It is a place of waiting, of restrictions, of suffering, of patience.
The Cross and the New Creation
We still are waiting—waiting for God’s promises to come true in our lives. Here is the crucible in which faith is developed. Faith is one of the cornerstones of the conquering personality. We always must await God’s time. People are teaching today that if there is something we want we can get it—now. It is good to approach God with an attitude of hope, expectancy, and cheerfulness, believing in God’s goodness. However, the teaching of “get it now by faith” is not of God but of the False Prophet (Revelation 13:11).
Christ had the written Word. He also had the personal revelation of God to Him concerning God’s will for His life. We too, who are called to be sons of God, have the written Word, and God speaks to us along the way. Jesus had to overcome the world by faith in God’s Character and we must overcome the world by faith in God’s Character.
The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring forth the Word of God in our ministry and in our personality. We always are being challenged by the Word of God. We are tempted at times to become discouraged, to believe that God cannot or will not bring to pass in our life all He has written. We continue to minister to the Body of Christ by the power that the Spirit gives us and we continue to maintain faith in God’s Word. No matter what happens to us we proclaim faith in every promise in God’s Holy Word. We do not quit in discouragement, unbelief, or rebellion. We hold fast to what God has stated. We always justify God with our mouth.
We are saved by hope (Romans 8:24), but fearfulness and timidity lead us into the Lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). Faith and hope are related in that faith is the “substance of things hoped for.” All the heroes of faith lived in the expectation of receiving good at the hands of God. They believed that their seeking would bring them to a better country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God (Hebrews 11:16).
By faith we begin at the top, the summit of the new Jerusalem. Then faith is worked out in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. If we do not press forward in faith until our personality is a new creation, our original position in Christ is placed in jeopardy.
We must be patient. We must keep the commandments of God. We must hold fast the faith of Jesus. We must die in the Lord and allow His Spirit to perform the works of redemption in us.
Because we have been willing to give over our first personality to the death of the cross and to live by faith in His resurrection Life and power, we have become a source of righteousness and Life for unnumbered multitudes of people.
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
We have noted that those who advocate getting one’s way by faith stress that the Bible is Jesus, that the living Word and the written Word are one and the same. It seems so right to “stand upon the Word,” to declare what the Scriptures state and maintain that such will become reality provided we think it, speak it, hold to it. This approach sounds so positive, so victorious, so hopeful. But there surely is death in the pot.
The Bible encourages us to pray to God through Jesus, not simply to say something is true in any situation of our choosing merely because the principle may be set forth in the Scriptures. Also, the “faith” advocates do not emphasize nearly enough the Presence of the Holy Spirit or of the Lord.
Faith is assumed to be a belief that what the Scriptures promise has already taken place in those who profess belief in Christ, or will take place without any effort on their part. It is as though the Israelite could sit in Egypt and “by faith” leave Egypt, “by faith” gain the lessons of the wilderness, and “by faith” enter the land of promise; “by faith” meaning maintaining a mental grasp on the statements of the Scriptures. Faith becomes a sort of magic carpet by which we sail away effortlessly from the bondages of Satan and arrive at the Paradise of God. It is true, rather that we must make the effort to leave Egypt (the ways and spirit of the world); we must endure the rigors of the wilderness; and we must fight our way into Canaan.
The Christians in Thessalonica were being persecuted. They were suffering for the Gospel’s sake. Most of us are aware of the intense persecution that Christians suffered at the hands of the Roman Empire during the first few centuries of the Christian Era. Because the saints in Thessalonica responded to their suffering with patience and faith the Apostle Paul was able to boast of them to the other churches.
The Scripture teaches that those who suffer with Christ today will be glorified together with Him. All who have borne the disgrace of the cross will be revealed in glory together. Here is the perfect justice of the God of Heaven. But woe to those who are at ease in Zion! Woe to those who have made a profession of faith in Christ but who have chosen to walk in ways that are popular with the world and with worldly Christians! They never have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Therefore the blessing of the Lord is not on them. They have not gained the Kingdom of Heaven.
Entering the Kingdom of Heaven
If a person truly receives by faith Christ as his Lord and Savior, a new creation will be seen in his personality. The new creation is Christ in him. The new creation does the will of God by nature because it is born of God (I John 3:9; 5:4). If—and this is important to understand!—over a period of years there is no transformation of the personality, then that individual is not in Christ. His faith is dead. He does not possess saving faith. The God of Heaven requires the fruit of godly behavior as a part of salvation by faith. In fact, it is the godly behavior that is the proof of salvation and is the salvation.
If our faith is of the right kind, a change into Christ’s moral image will take place. Today’s pastors and teachers are presenting a faith that has little connection with reality. They are saying that we gain righteousness by believing certain things and making certain statements. They teach that if a person believes what the Bible says is true, righteousness will flow from the Divine Throne whether or not the person is living a godly life.
Added to this is the theory that belief in the Lordship of Jesus brings to the worshiper a state of righteousness that produces all necessary moral and character transformation apart from any effort on the part of the believer. Jesus has overcome all enemies, and by placing our faith in Him we also have overcome all enemies. Our part is to rest in the finished work of Christ. No struggle, no effort on our part is required. Jesus has done it all. Anything we are to do the Lord will perform in us and through us.
It is a sovereign grace, an unconditional salvation untouched by human effort. Many proceed further to claim that once this sovereign grace has been accepted it never can be changed or lost. It is from God alone and man’s actions can neither add to nor subtract from it.
This concept does away with the “good fight” of faith. It is a demonic delusion designed by Satan to destroy the moral strength of the Church.
As we follow the Lord in the Christian warfare we learn how to lean on the Lord. We cannot gain victory by our own efforts to overcome sin. We soon will give up in despair if we do. It is “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” We have to do the fighting but it is always the Lord Jesus who gives the necessary strength and wisdom. We learn to move with the Lord and rest with the Lord. He is the Overcomer with a capital “O.” We are the overcomer with a small “o.” We cannot fight the good fight of faith by ourselves and the Lord Jesus will not fight it for us.
The First and Second Resurrections
Christ, through the Holy Spirit, has provided an immediate deliverance from sin. As we confess our sins and repent of them, the Holy Spirit takes the fire and life out of them and we are able to keep our body under control. In this manner we are kept by our faith unto the day of redemption.
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
By living a victorious Christian life we mean the believer avails himself by faith of the fullness of the Divine grace being offered, and that he gives himself to Christ according to the requirements of the new covenant. Through the grace of the Lord Jesus he overcomes all that is of sin and self-will. When he stumbles and falls he rises again, in the Lord, and continues in the warfare according to the ability God gives. This is what it means to be a true Christian, a true saint, a true member of the Body of Christ, of the Wife of the Lamb, of the new Jerusalem.
We see, then, that righteousness, the state of being received and approved by the Lord, includes both faith in God’s promises and also a change in our behavior until we actually are practicing the actions that are pleasing to God. We cannot emphasize faith and reject the need for godly behavior. We cannot emphasize godly behavior and reject the need for faith. If we select one and reject the other we will make shipwreck of the Christian discipleship.
We must make certain that we do not lose our crown but rather that we join the company of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises of God—the promises applied to us because we are part of the Lord Jesus the Christ.
THE REST OF GOD
INTRODUCTION TO THE REST OF GOD
We always must be fiercely determined to do the will of God.
To those who may insist we will receive our inheritance whether or not we press into the rest of God, whether or not we serve Christ with all sincerity, who claim salvation is not based upon our response of daily faith and perseverance, let us point out that to take this attitude is to walk on slippery ground as far as the Book of Hebrews is concerned.
Since one’s eternal salvation is at stake it seems wiser to see what is to be gained by seeking Christ with total diligence rather than to wait to discover the end of those who neglect their salvation.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews exhorts us to move past the rudiments of the Christian Gospel and to press into the rest of God.
The rest of God is our inheritance in Christ. It is that place of attainment where we are abiding in trust in Christ and, by the power of the Word and Spirit of God, are proceeding steadily forward toward the fullness of what God has marked out for us as an individual.
We are to learn how to cease from our own works, our own strivings, and to rest with God as His work (already completed in God’s mind) is prepared out in the spiritual and material realms.
In his epistle the writer of Hebrews warns the believers of the consequences of falling back, of not bearing the fruit of Christ’s moral image. Christ’s moral image always comes forth in those who truly are abiding in Him.
Righteousness and holiness of behavior must accompany salvation (Hebrews 6:9).
If the fruit for which God is looking does not come forth, the believer is near to rejection and burning (Hebrews 6:8).
DEFINING THE REST OF GOD
God the Father at Rest in Christ in the Saints
The highest goal of all is not to attain to a supreme level in the Kingdom or spiritual perfection but to become an integral part of the love of God that is flowing outward from the Throne toward those whom God is seeking. To attain oneness with God and with His family is to enter the untroubled rest of God.
To enter the rest of God is to have Christ fully formed in the personality. To enter the rest of God is to have the Father and Christ make their eternal abode in us and to delight ourselves continually in our closeness to Them as They express Themselves in us.
The Father and the Son will make their abode in the faithful disciple, in fulfillment of the old covenant feast of Tabernacles. This is the supreme end of the Christian redemption, the rest of God of which the Scriptures speak.
The feast of Tabernacles portrays the rest of God, the dwelling of God and Christ through the Holy Spirit in and with the glorified inner man of the saint in a glorified body. Each saint so filled and glorified constitutes a building block in the new Jerusalem, the holy city. Such are the Throne of God. They shall reign forever—ages without end.
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
The Mercy Seat and He who dwells between the Cherubim of Glory represents the rest of God. Our experience of redemption is climaxed by the coming of the Persons of the Godhead to abide in us forever. We are being brought toward perfect oneness, perfect reconciliation to the Lord God of Heaven.
The Seven Furnishings of the Tabernacle of the Congregation
The fervent disciple who is experiencing “Trumpets,” to whom the King, Christ, has come in order to establish total dominion over his personality, may find that he has a strong desire for more of God. The Spirit is encouraging him to press vigorously toward a fuller apprehension of the rest of God, that is, a fuller realization of Christ abiding in him.
We must keep the Words of the Lord and His Apostles if we hope to gain the rest of God, the fullness of salvation, which is the dwelling in us of the Father and the Son.
To be an overcomer is to resist successfully all the various lusts, fears, and pressures that continually attempt to cause us to disobey God. The overcomer fights his way, through the Spirit, into the rest of God. The rest of God is that state where we are abiding in restful union with Christ in God.
The Veil hanging between the Altar of Incense and the Ark of the Covenant portrays the third death—death to self. As our lives are poured out in consecration to the will of the Father we pass through the Veil that separates us from the fullness of the abiding in Christ—from the rest of God.
The Seven Furnishings of the Tabernacle of the Congregation
The third death is the crossing of Jordan, so to speak. It is the change from Moses, the shepherd, to Joshua, the commander of battle. It is the throne phase of Christianity. The third death and resurrection brings us into the rest of God, into the image of Christ, into the realm of authority, into the fullness of redemption from slavery to Satan to the eternal Life of Christ.
The Three Temptations of Christ
The coming of God and Christ to abide eternally with the completely reconciled saint is the fullness of redemption, the rest of God, perfection, full sonship—call it what you wish. It is the completion of salvation, the fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, the omega of the pursuit of God, the “all things” of Revelation 21:7.
The Seven Furnishings of the Tabernacle of the Congregation
What is better than the present state of the patriarchs in Heaven? What is the perfection that is better than eternal residence in Heaven? Perfection is the Kingdom of God. Perfection is the bringing of the Lord Jesus Christ into every atom of the material creation.
The better thing, the perfect state, is union with the Lord Jesus. The union (marriage) of the saints with the Lord will be revealed in the first resurrection from the dead. In terms of the Book of Hebrews, the “better thing” is the rest of God.
Orientation to the Kingdom of God
To know the Father is to experience the rest of God. It is not that any of us know the Father to any great extent. Neither do we know the Lord Jesus to the depth He desires. But we are sons of God and we are growing. As we grow we become conscious that the Lord Jesus is our elder Brother who is slowly, patiently preparing us so that the Father may be All in all in us.
The Lord Jesus must put down every enemy in us before God can find His rest in us. First, salvation. Then, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Finally the Father and the Son take up Their eternal abode in us. The Lord Jesus is the dwelling place of the Father. Christ is Zion, the Hill in whom God dwells. It is as Christ is formed in us that the Father can find rest in us because God lives only in Christ.
Ceasing from Our Own Works
The rest of God is based on the fact that God finished all His works at the time of the creation of the universe, and now is resting.
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
The rest of God is associated with God’s ceasing from His works on the seventh day, and with Canaan, the inheritance, the land of promise.
To enter the rest of God requires that we seek the will of God rather than strive to please God by our own religious works.
To be quiet and content in our assigned role and place in Christ is to be in the rest of God.
The rest of God is the condition in which we have ceased from our own works and are resting in the finished work of the Lord.
God made the physical universe in six days, and then God rested on the seventh day. The Jewish Sabbath portrays that eternal rest to which we have been called. When we are in the eternal rest of God we do not think our own thoughts, walk in our own ways, or perform our own deeds. There is no evening and morning of the seventh day. It is all one glorious day! We realize that all things have been finished since the creation of the world and our sole responsibility is to enter the finished work of God. To rest in God in this manner requires trust.
We learn to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We have given our all to Him and so all that He is and possesses belong to us. We trust Him to give us what we need, in every area of life, when we need it. Then we abide in perfect love, joy, and peace. Then we dwell in the secret place of the Most High. Then we are living in the rest of God.
The rest of God is speaking of our goal, our land of promise. The expression “partakers of Christ” is synonymous with attaining to the goal, the land of milk and honey. Egypt is the spirit of the world. The “rest” of God is referring to our overcoming the enemies that come against us until we are in the moral image of Christ and are dwelling in untroubled union with Christ. We have ceased from our own works and are resting in God’s perfect will. Such rest is possible only as through Christ we overcome our love for the world, the lusts of our flesh, and our personal ambition, for it is these three factors that keep us performing our own works, that prevent us from resting in the will of Christ.
What we shall say concerning the observance of the Sabbath is true of all the commandments. In the new covenant the full intent of all the commandments and observances is created in us in an exceedingly greater comprehensiveness than could ever be true of a law written on tables of stone. Ordinarily the emphasis of Sabbath observance is on not working. But the words of Isaiah reveal that not working is not the central intent of the Sabbath. The doctrine is not that of not working but of not doing our work.
- “Turn away your foot from doing your pleasure.”
- “Call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable.”
- “Honor the Lord by not following your own ways nor finding your own pleasure nor speaking your own words.”
- “Then you will delight yourself in the Lord.”
What we have here is a description of the rest of God, of the state of abiding in Christ where our old nature is crucified with Christ and Christ is living in us. The Lord Jesus dwells eternally in the Sabbath of God. He does not pursue His own ways or find His own pleasure or speak His own words. Jesus dwells in God and God in Him. He is the Expression, the Word of God. The Lord Jesus, in addition to being the Son of God and Lord of all, is the first Man as God meant men to be. The Lord Jesus always dwells in the fullness of the rest of God. By concentrating on not working we miss the point of the Sabbath. The purpose of the Sabbath is to honor the Lord by following His ways, finding His pleasure, speaking His words.
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
As we are willing to die in the Lord, to cease from our own works and striving, we enter the rest of God. In six days God finished all His works through to the coming down to earth of the new Jerusalem. Every detail was finished in the mind of God from the beginning. The sons of God were predestined, called, glorified, in the darkness before time began. Then God rested. Every person born into the world strives to create his own heaven and earth. Those who are able to hear the Lord, cease from their own works. They give their hope and dreams to God. They allow Him to bring them to the perfect place planned for them from the creation of the world.
When we first are saved there is much we are to do without trying to be too “spiritual” about it, such as reading our Bible, praying, attending the assembling of the saints, giving, and serving as we have opportunity. When we receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit we are to covet earnestly the best gifts, seeking to excel to the building up of the Body of Christ.
Now God is calling us to a further step toward the rest of God. We are to learn how to work with the Lord instead of for Him. It requires faith to enter the rest of God—faith that God is in control and knows what He is doing. God is building His Church. God is reaching out and saving people from all walks of life. Our task as we enter the rest of God, into our inheritance in the Lord, is to be obedient to what God is telling us. When we take our position on the cross, waiting on the Lord, refusing to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, there are many voices that will challenge us to come down and do something. “Get busy and work for the Lord. The King’s business requires haste.”
Victory Over All Our Enemies
What is the rest of God?
The Book of Hebrews is an exhortation to Christian disciples to enter the rest of God. What is the goal of the Christian discipline? What is the goal that Paul was pressing toward? The rest of God is not rest as in sleep. The rest of God concerns our grasp on our inheritance in Christ. It is the place where we have arrived at all that God has spoken concerning us. We have not entered fully into the rest as yet but we are laboring to enter that rest, if we are a Christian saint who is being led by the Spirit of God.
A Study Guide for the Book of Hebrews
Christian teaching stresses salvation from the world, and in some instances has extended salvation to include a deeper work of holiness in our life. But the types and principles of the Scriptures reveal clearly there are not two but three works of grace: salvation, sanctification, and oneness with God through Christ (the fullness of God—Ephesians 3:19). None of these three aspects is a vaguely defined, general quest for God, although all three are part of the one “salvation.” There is a goal that we are to be pressing toward. That goal is the “rest of God.”
We have not attained Christ until we have pursued Christ to the point of perfect, full possession of Him. In order to gain Christ, gain the resurrection, we must, through Christ, overcome every enemy that comes against us. When we have attained rest from our enemies we then have attained Christ, attained to the redemption of our body from the hand of the enemy. This is why the fourth chapter of the Book of Hebrews speaks of the “rest” of God. The rest of God is rest from God’s enemies and our enemies.
The Destruction of the Last Enemy
There are three vicious enemies that will fight fiercely and determinedly to prevent each believer from attaining to the rest of God. The claims of the world (the state of uncircumcision). The sin that dwells in our flesh (the sin of Achan). Our willingness to depend on our own judgment instead of the Lord (the error of Joshua). The three enemies are attacking us constantly, searching for a weak spot in our armor. Only a determined, faithful, self-denying Christian will be able to defeat all three, with the help of Christ, and enter the spiritual and physical areas of the rest of God.
It is so difficult to enter the rest of God! There are many forces—not the least of which is personal ambition—that prevent us from resting in God. God has not called us to save souls, to build the Kingdom, to perfect our own righteousness and holiness, or to become a spiritual person so other people will be impressed. God has called us to enter Christ, to find our life in Him. There are various efforts that we must make, and they are set forth in many passages of the New Testament. The end result of all our efforts must be our abiding in Christ.
Are we “saved” when we come out of Egypt (the world)? Are we “saved” when we are murmuring and growing bitter because of the pain we are experiencing while journeying through the wilderness (life in the world)? According to the Scriptures, to be “saved” is to journey in faith and confidence throughout our lifetime, obeying God each day. What does it mean to be “saved”? It means to continue in confidence in Christ each day of our discipleship. We are not “saved” in the scriptural sense until we arrive at the rest of God. “Rest,” as used in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, means rest from our enemies. Through Christ we have overcome every enemy of our soul and have gained the moral Character of the Lord and are resting in the Father’s perfect will. This “rest” is our Canaan, our land of promise.
Canaan is not a type of Heaven. Canaan is a type of the rest of God. The rest of God is not Heaven and has little to do with Heaven. The great rebellion against God began in Heaven. The rebels do not reside in Heaven now because God cast them away from His presence into the lower heavens. It is from their vantage points in the air above us that the deposed heavenly nobles corrupt the earth. To enter the rest of God is to work with the Spirit of God until all worldliness, all lust, and all self-will have been driven from our personality. Perfect obedience must be created in the personality of each son of God. No disobedience of any kind, small or great, to the Father’s will is permitted.
To enter the rest of God is to enter the stream of Divine wisdom and energy that is moving toward establishing Christ as the Head, Center, and Circumference of the entire creation of God. We must fight, in the Spirit, to bring ourselves and others into the perfect rest of God, because the unclean spirits have made the peoples of the earth their dwelling places and always teach them rebellion against God.
The Book of Hebrews does not emphasize an individual’s going to Heaven or Hell when he dies. Rather, the writer of Hebrews speaks of the danger of dying in the wilderness, that is, of losing our joyous confidence and zeal in the middle of our pilgrimage; of not living in the Spirit and pressing forward to the rest of God. The “rest” of God is not Heaven. The rest of God is the state of abiding in victory in Christ in God and all else that goes along with victory.
To enter the rest of God is to receive back our flesh and bones from the grave and to be clothed upon with a marvelous spiritual body that reflects our years of crucifixion on the earth.
To enter the rest of God is to inherit all that God has created. But, as in the case of Canaan, our land of promise is occupied by an enemy who is fiercely determined to prevent our entering our inheritance. Our inheritance has been paid for by the blood of the cross. But the enemy will not surrender the property he holds illegally. The only solution is war!
What does it mean to be “saved”? It means to continue in confidence in Christ each day of our discipleship. We are not “saved” in the scriptural sense until we arrive at the rest of God. “Rest,” as used in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, means rest from our enemies. Through Christ we have overcome every enemy of our soul and have gained the moral Character of the Lord and are resting in the Father’s perfect will. This “rest” is our Canaan, our land of promise.
We do not partake of Christ, and consequently do not find rest in the Person of the Father, unless we steadfastly continue in belief and obedience to the end of our life on earth.
We have the authority through the blood of the Lord Jesus to become the House of God. We have the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. Let us press forward into the fullness of the rest of God and thus join the ranks of the heroes of faith. They are waiting for us to reach forward toward the mark in order that they along with us may be made perfect in the Kingdom of God.
The Scriptures are a vision of the restoration of all things, as promised by the Hebrew Prophets. Because of the marvelous love and Glory of God’s Nature, the restored inheritance will be infinitely greater than what was lost through inexperience. The restoration has been completed in vision and God now is resting. Our task is to enter this rest of God, to flow with the flowings of God’s Word as the almighty Word brings into existence the fulfillment of the finished vision.
We have discussed the varied works that compose the Christian discipleship, including the exercise of our will in such a manner that we continually make godly decisions. The Christian life is a battle, a warfare. We are seeking to enter the promised-land inheritance, the rest of God.
From the creation of the world God has perfected in His mind a new race, a new heaven, and a new earth, a whole new world wherein dwells righteousness. He has not put this world under subjection to angels but to the Son of God, Christ, and His coheirs.
Our task is to lay aside our own dead religious works and labor to enter the Divine workings that are bringing to pass the vision of God. We can enter rest in God’s working but only after we, through the Spirit of God, achieve victory over the lusts that reside in our flesh, over Satan, over religious deception, over the spirit of the world, and over our own self-seeking, self-love, self-centeredness, and self-will. All these prevent our abiding in peace in God’s finished work. The final result of our diligent grasp of all the help God has extended to us is the Father and the Son entering us so we are filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19).
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
Realizing There Is Only One Legitimate Will in the Universe
The rest of God is the state in which the saint is abiding in the perfect will of God at all times, under all conditions, for eternity.
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
When Jesus came, did He speak of our dying and going to Heaven? No, He did not. Jesus taught what the Prophets declared—that the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom that comes from Heaven, is soon to be installed on the earth among men. Jesus taught us to pray that God’s Kingdom would come, that His will would be done in the earth as it is in Heaven. Doing God’s will in the earth, as distinct from Adam’s disobedience, is the fundamental concept of the Kingdom of God, of the goal of redemption, of the rest of God.
The one principle uncrucified man never will accept is that God desires to rule and bless through individuals who are one with Himself, whose every deed, word, motive, and imagination are in Him, of Him, by Him. The race of Adam cannot receive this concept, choosing instead to gather together groups of people and work for God. This is of Antichrist.
The Antichrist spirit is in all of us who want to be like God, whether we set out to accomplish this desire by secular means or religious means. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ commands us to lay down our life, take up our cross, and follow Him. As we do this, the Antichrist spirit is destroyed out of us. We come into an intensely personal union with the Lord Jesus. He reveals Himself to us. The Father and He come to us and make Their eternal abode with us. This is the rest of God. This is the true salvation. All else is of Antichrist.
The mountains of Bashan leap in the governments of the great nations, in the cathedrals of the historic denominations, in small Christian fellowships, and in families—both Christian and non-Christian. It is the same spirit, the spirit of self-will, of personal pride, the spirit that caused Lucifer to be hurled from the Presence of God. The only legitimate will in the universe is the will of God. Every saved individual must one day learn to exclaim from his or her heart, Not my will but Yours be done. To say and practice this declaration is to enter the land of promise, the rest of God.
The goal of the faithful disciple is the rest of God, that is, the condition in which the Father and the Son, through the Holy Spirit, are filling the personality. The will of the believer and the will of the Father are now one in desire, purpose, and joy. This is the highest form of the law of God.
There is no way in which the believer can improve on the Divine redemption in Christ by adding some religious observances, such as circumcision and the keeping of holy days.
A Study Guide for the Book of Galatians
The most peaceful, joyous experience possible to a human being is attained when our will is identical with the will of God. Then we are free. Then we are God’s bondslaves. Then we are in the rest of God. Then we are united with Him in His death and resurrection. As long as any part of our will is not found in God we are in partial slavery to our own self-will, which is equivalent to slavery to Satan. If we persevere in following Christ we remain free from the Law of Moses, free from the guilt of sin, free from the compulsions of sin, and finally, free from self-will.
To obtain all these freedoms is to attain to the resurrection that is out from among the dead.
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
If we will continue in the Spirit we will enter the rest of God, the place where our whole personality delights to do the will of God. The Lake of Fire no longer will have authority over us. We, having been judged in advance, are now ready for the first resurrection from the dead.
It is not the Lord’s will that the saint go about seeking to persuade God to perform the saint’s will. This is why the current “faith message” is so ungodly. It is not our task to persuade God to do anything whether by faith or by any other means. Rather, we are to seek the Lord alone. God works in us, giving us a desire for His will, and then brings to pass His own will. This is the rest of God. Blessed indeed is the person who is content with God and His will. How much time and strength we waste until we are willing to enter God’s rest, allowing Him to create in us His own will and the accomplishing of His own will!
Our destiny is the Sabbath rest of God. When we enter God’s rest we shall seek the Lord’s pleasure, speak the Lord’s words, and walk in the Lord’s ways for eternity (compare Isaiah 58:13,14). Our destiny includes change into the moral image of the Lord Jesus, and union with God through Christ. We are being created the eternal Temple of God, a place where God can find rest. We shall have attained to the goal of our existence when all sin and self-seeking have been removed from our personality and God and Jesus have settled down to rest in us.
THE NATURE OF THE REST OF GOD
Lost Through Neglect
We must follow through to total victory in the rest of God. No man who has put his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God. It is impossible for a double-minded individual to attain to the first resurrection.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
The exhortation of the Book of Hebrews is that we press forward toward perfection, toward the rest of God; and that if we do not, and do not begin to bring forth the good fruit of the Kingdom of God, the “things that accompany salvation,” we are in danger of cursing and burning.
We cannot make progress toward the rest of God except as we learn to pray consistently. If we do not set aside a definite time for prayer each day we will not grow in the Lord and we will not learn to live by the Life of the Lord.
One of the greatest sins any Christian can commit is the sin of neglecting to press into the inheritance, into the rest of God. If we neglect our salvation, if we are busy with buying and selling and going here and there when the King needs us for His business, then we surely will be punished severely in the Day of the Lord.
Kingdom Instruction from the Book of Joshua
If we love what we see on the television we do not love God or the environment of God. We still are filled with Hell. We have not been reconciled to God. We are not in the rest of God in this aspect. We still love what God despises. An atonement, a reconciliation, has not occurred in our choice of environment.
The Book of Hebrews was a solemn warning to them (and us) that if they should neglect their salvation, not pressing into the rest of God, not bearing the fruit of the Spirit, they would be in danger of Divine fire. What did Jesus say to the Christian whose sin consisted of not using the gift that God had entrusted to him? “You wicked and lazy slave. Why did you waste my money? Depart from me and go into outer darkness!” According to the Scripture, this can happen to the careless Christian.
We must not confuse going to Heaven with entering the Kingdom of God. The practical problem here (and it indeed is a problem of our day) is that Christian people are neglecting the task of entering the Kingdom, into the rest of God, because of their mistaken assumption that as long as they are “saved” they will enter Heaven (which they believe to be the Kingdom of God) when they die physically.
The thesis of the Book of Hebrews is that believers, in the light of their inconceivably great calling as sons and heirs of God, must not stop after having made initial progress in the process of redemption but must press forward to the fullness of the inheritance, to the “rest” of God. The rest of God has been attained when God’s perfect will is performed in us continually and He has settled down to rest in Christ in us. Our responsibility is to lay hold upon the heavenly calling, to not come short of it. The Book of Hebrews warns us that we will not escape the judgment of God if we neglect to press each day into the perfect rest of God, into the place of abiding where God’s unhindered will is being exercised in us.
Our ability to draw near to God, to overcome, to die in the Lord, to enter into the rest of God, are the gifts of God. Salvation is held open to us for a short period of time. There are seasons of opportunity (Acts 3:19; John 6:44; Hebrews 3:13). It may be true that in the near future it will be impossible for us to make the decision to die in the Lord, to enter into the rest of God, to find our place of refuge in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is a distinct possibility, a probability.
The wise reader will not delay but will give himself to the Lord immediately. He will come to the Lord now, seeking to enter into the marvels that have been prepared from the creation of the world for the closing days of the Church Age. Many that are last will be first. The door to glory is open and neither man nor devil can close it. But the individual believer indeed can choose not to go through that door, judging himself to be unworthy of the Kingdom of God, by neglecting that which God is offering to him. Fearful indeed is the fate of the person to whom God has entrusted much but who chooses to neglect His Divine calling and follow his own path.
Not Passivity
The concept of our not being saved unless we continue serving God steadfastly, moving each day toward the rest of God, the fullness of Christ, is absolutely revolutionary in our time. The current teaching is that we are saved the moment we “accept Christ.” The Scriptures teach that we are saved the moment we accept Christ provided we continue in faith until we finish our course.
The lack of a clear vision of the hope of the Gospel of Christ, which is the resurrection to eternal life (John 3:16), has produced chaos in the Christian churches. The saints are not pressing toward maturity in Christ, toward the rest of God, because they have been taught to put their trust in a secret translation to Paradise where they will not be held accountable for their conduct on the earth.
The Purpose of the Resurrection of the Priesthood
We are mistaken. God does not, ordinarily, come down on an uninterested believer, shake his bedroom with thunder, and send him or her as an apostle to the ends of the earth. Passivity and world involvement are counterfeits of the true rest of God. Neither passivity nor world involvement are a part of death to self-centeredness and self-seeking. In fact, they spring from self-centeredness and self-seeking.
The true rest of God is entered by the blood-washed, cross-carrying saint who is pressing forward diligently toward the prize set before him. He is not rushing out presumptuously to do “big things for God,” nor is he fully involved in the world, waiting for God to break in on him and “speak” to him, nor is he, having lost his own power of decision-making, being led about by feelings and voices. Rather, he is moving steadily forward, bringing forth fruit with Kingdom patience. This is the true rest of God and it requires a genuine death to our self-love, self-centeredness, and self-seeking.
The teachers who advocate the “Jesus did it all” concept of salvation may have some knowledge of the Scriptures that announce our position in Christ, but they certainly are unaware of the warfare that is necessary if the Divine vision is to become reality in our personality. We must make every effort if we are to enter the rest of God, the Divine vision that portrays our position in Christ at the right hand of God. To stress our position in Christ and not balance the position with an equal emphasis on the necessary warfare is a distorting of Paul’s teaching and will lead to the destruction of every person who allows himself or herself to become persuaded that God and Christ would participate in such an empty redemption.
We must labor to enter the “rest” of God, as set forth in the fourth chapter of the Book of Hebrews. There are two counterfeits of the true rest of God, of the true death to self-seeking.
The first counterfeit is passivity.
The second counterfeit is world involvement while waiting for one’s “call.”
The fervent disciple who is experiencing “Trumpets,” to whom the King, Christ, has come in order to establish total dominion over his personality, may find that he has a strong desire for more of God. The Spirit is encouraging him to press vigorously toward a fuller achievement of the rest of God, that is, a fuller realization of Christ abiding in him.
The novice may surrender his will in such a manner he becomes an “empty vessel,” waiting for the Spirit of God to move him. This approach seems to be that of the true rest of God, of death to self-will. But it is not the true rest of God. It is a state of passivity. God will not work when the believer attempts to become a “medium” for the Spirit of God. Rather, the true Christian life is one of actively using our will each day to make the choices necessary for the particular day.
We must pray, read the Scriptures, assemble with fervent saints if possible, rejoice in the Lord, perform diligently the tasks set before us, confess our sins, give of our means as we are able, seek the Lord for our area of service, and do all the other good works set forth in God’s Word. We are to do all this whether we particularly “feel” like it or not! Also, we are to take delight in serving the Lord, as much as possible. The Lord is pleased when we rejoice and work righteousness.
We are not speaking of passivity but of continually seeking the Lord, constantly pressing into His immediate will for us. What a battle it is to enter the rest of God! We soon learn that faith and prayer are not devices by which we convince God to do what we desire. Rather, faith and prayer are the means of finding out what God desires and receiving the strength to do what God desires.
One hardly would gain the impression from reading the Epistles of the New Testament that the believer is supposed to become an empty vessel and wait for the Spirit of God to move him. From the Gospel accounts forward there are things to do. An abandoning of one’s will in the hope of being directed by supernatural forces may appear to be the rest of God, but it opens the believer to demon activity.
Hebrews Chapters Three and Four teach us concerning belief and obedience and of the rest of God. Belief and obedience are true faith and bring us into the rest of God. As we seek to follow God every motive of our personality is revealed for what it is so we can detect the spirit of the world, lust, Satan, and self-glorification.
We invite the reader to consider a change in his understanding of salvation as being a ticket for admission to another place, to a change of his personality into the image that God has planned for him. Our present generation of Christians may be so imbued with the traditional concept of the ticket to Heaven that such revolutionary change in thinking is impossible. Perhaps we must look toward the present generation of children as being the ones who will cross Jordan, who will move forward into the rest of God.
A Daily Battle
The rest of God is available to each of us, but we have to conquer, through Christ, the world, Satan, and our own fleshly lusts and self-will. We have to overcome every enemy that would urge us to disobey Christ. Total victory is possible through Christ, but not easy to accomplish.
Entering the rest of God is not always easy because of the opposition from Satan, from the world, from our own lusts, from our self-centeredness and self-seeking, from well intentioned religious people.
It is God’s will that all saved people learn to live in the Spirit. This will be much easier in the ages to come than it is now. Today we have to fight the world, our flesh, the demons, and our own pride and self-will in order to enter the rest of God, the place where we are at rest in the Spirit and will of God. We are a firstfruits of God’s creatures. We are a warlike remnant determined to press into our land of promise, into life lived in every area under the guidance and enablement of the Holy Spirit of God.
Faith is a fight. It is fighting our way into the rest of God, into the inheritance, into eternal life. We must labor to enter rest. We must cast aside our own works in order that we may enter the works of God, into that finished inheritance. God gave the Word, and the Word is bringing about a new race, a new heaven, and a new earth. We are not to perform our own works. We are to enter Christ so that we work as part of the working of God.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
Living in the “rest” of God is not as easy as it may sound. We have to labor to enter the rest of God. The pressures of the world, the lusts of our flesh, our personal ambition and stubbornness—all seek to move us out of the peaceful abiding in Christ. In addition, we have our own ways of attempting to assist God, our own standards that must be met before we can believe that God is pleased or that the Kingdom of God is being established according to God’s will.
Until we are successful, through the power and wisdom that Christ alone provides, in overcoming the three destructive forces that seek to dominate our personality and behavior, we cannot be completely reconciled to God. We can abide in the rest of God’s Presence and will while we are battling through to victory, but we cannot enter the rest of the land of promise, the rest that is our inheritance from God, into our part in the plan conceived in God’s mind from the creation of the world, until worldliness, fleshly lusts, and self-will have been driven from us by the Spirit of God.
Our first goal, our initial land of promise, is our own being, our own personality. We, through the Holy Spirit, must gain total victory over our love of the world, our love of sin, and over self-love. Our love of the world, of sin, and of self must be slain by the Spirit’s help. It is the love of these enemies of God that keeps us out of the rest of God.
Then too, no matter how far we may get into the rest of God, into our inheritance, we are admonished by the Lord to fight alongside our brothers and sisters in the Lord until they too enter their inheritance (Joshua 1:12-15).
The Tabernacle of the Congregation
After God created the heavens and the earth, man’s environment, God spoke four proclamations concerning man—a fourfold Divine declaration. Then God rested. It is the whole duty of man to say Amen to each of these four proclamations, thus to enter the rest of God. Satan, Antichrist, Babylon, our bodily lusts, and our self-centered soul all work desperately to keep us from saying Amen to the Divine declaration and from entering the rest of God. It is because of such strong opposition that we are required to labor, to fight in order to enter the rest of God (Hebrews 4:10, 11). We must overcome Satan in every instance by the word of our testimony, that is, by proclaiming that what God has said is true and unchanging.
The right works are those that proceed from Christ, from the Holy Spirit. As we labor to enter the rest of God, into what God has spoken from the beginning, the works of Christ are revealed in us. These works lead to eternal life. There is no conflict between Paul and James. Paul is speaking of the wrong kind of works, of the dead works that proceed from the religious person. James is speaking of living works, of the works that proceed from our active, daily pressing into the will of Christ.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
We can overcome the world and Satan by Christ’s help if we are determined to do so. We must overcome the world and Satan if we hope to enter the rest of God, the land of milk and honey.
Truly, the rest of God is one of the greatest of all treasures. The degree of rest in Christ that we possess varies from believer to believer. Some Christians have made a profession of faith in Christ but as yet are not aware of the wonderful entrance into Christ that is available even in the present life. Other Christians have been taught concerning the life of abiding in Christ and have exercised the faith, courage, trust, and diligence required for the full entrance into the Father and the Son (Ephesians 3:19).
O to live as Jesus lived, as Paul lived, in the full flowing of the Life of God! What a battle, what a labor is necessary if we are to press past all fear and unbelief and enter the rest of God! What a state of glory we live in as God becomes our Salvation and we begin to draw water with joy from the wells of salvation!
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
The writing of the Law in our heart, which is required if we are to attain bodily resurrection to righteousness, immortality, and glory, is the way we enter the rest of God. We enter God’s rest as we cease from our own works and permit the Lord to crucify and then resurrect our inner nature in His own Life—which is equivalent to writing His Law in our heart.
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
How can God and Christ make Their abode in us if we still love the world, sin, and our own selfish desires? How can God and Christ reach forth through us and release the prisoners of the earth, restoring what was lost in Eden, if we love sin and are not willing to allow Christ to have his unhindered way in us? It is impossible for any person to enter the rest of God while he still is self-centered, seeking to coerce the Lord into meeting all his demands.
The Red Sea typifies death to the world. Mount Sinai typifies death to sin. The Jordan River typifies death to self-will, self-seeking. Only those saints who are willing to follow the Lord Jesus into death to all their ambitions and hopes can march across Jordan and enter the inheritance, the rest of God.
Kingdom Instruction from the Book of Joshua
It is only in our death that we will be able, through the Holy Spirit, to conquer the enemies who at the present time are living in our land of promise. Self must wither and die and Christ must be formed in us, if we are to enter the rest of God.
The Seven Furnishings of the Tabernacle of the Congregation
The Day of Reconciliation indeed is a reconciliation by fire. It is Divine judgment on us. It is a “slaying” of us so we can walk with God. It is a wounding, a tearing down, so the Lord can heal us and construct that which He desires in us. After we are baptized with the Holy Spirit we must be baptized with the fire of Divine judgment—the fire that eventually will reconcile us to the Consuming Fire. There is no other pathway to the rest of God. It is “eternal judgment,” a fire that cannot be extinguished until every particle that cannot exist in the Divine Fire has been burned out of us.
Bashan symbolizes that which is exalted in the flesh, that which God’s people will conquer as they make their way toward the rest of God. The elect have labored for many centuries in the bondage of spiritual ambition. God will bring His chosen people from the bondage of sin and self-will and establish them on Mount Zion, the place of their true inheritance. Salvation and eternal life are found only on Mount Zion. The mountains of Bashan, of human endeavor, strive in vain to give life. Eternal life comes only from the Father through the Son, the Lord Jesus the Christ.
Receiving Christ does not solve the problem of self-will. We are not converted from self-will until we have allowed the Lord to remove self from the throne and assume His rightful place as King of our personality.
Each saint is to struggle to enter the rest of God, to cease from his own ways, his own pleasures, his own words, and to honor God by following God’s ways, by embracing God’s pleasures, speaking God’s words. We enter God’s rest by entering the death of Christ and entering His resurrection. When Christ is living in us we fulfill the Sabbath commandment perfectly.
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
The lack of a clear vision of the hope of the Gospel of Christ, which is the resurrection to eternal life (John 3:16), has produced chaos in the Christian churches. The saints are not pressing toward maturity in Christ, toward the rest of God, because they have been taught to put their trust in a secret translation to Paradise where they will not be held accountable for their conduct on the earth.
It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking
Many believers are willing to remain at the thirtyfold or the sixtyfold level of fruit bearing. The prospect of pressing further into the death and resurrection of Christ and of helping other people enter the rest of God (for deeper consecration leads naturally to increased service to others) does not appeal to them. They are “saved.” They are willing to lead a “relatively” decent moral life and to attend some church meetings. Why not be content with what has been gained thus far? The love of Christ does not abound in such. The cries of the people who have never heard the name of Jesus fall in vain on their ears.
Kingdom Instruction from the Book of Joshua
If we would not be rejected with the majority we must enter fully into that which God has spoken concerning us. God through His sovereign workings has brought you and me out of Egypt into the wilderness of tribulations. The tribulations are designed to make us fit for the land of promise, for the place in Christ in God where we are abiding in perfect love, joy, and peace. Either we place our faith in Christ until we enter the promised-land rest of God or else we fall in the wilderness of temptation and testing because of our unbelief. Which is it going to be?
The “mountains of Bashan” are those who seek to be “giants” in the Kingdom of God, who are soulish and self-willed. Og, the king of Bashan, was a giant and his territory was the land of the giants (the Rephaim). Bashan symbolizes that which is exalted in the flesh, that which God’s people will conquer as they make their way toward the rest of God. The elect have labored for many centuries in the bondage of self-will and fleshly ambition. But God has promised to bring them back from the “depths of the sea” of humanity and give them their true inheritance.
We cannot enter the rest of God until we are willing to cease from our own efforts to gain security, joy, and prominence. We must trust that God will keep us by His power, give us the joy we desire, and bring us to the usefulness, fruitfulness, and rank in His Kingdom for which we were created. As long as we are striving to save our own life, grasp our own desires, and accomplish our own goals, we will find it impossible to enter untroubled rest in God’s Presence. The works were finished from the foundation of the world. Let us rest in that fact, understanding that if we look to God every moment of every day, His Word will bring us to the fullness of salvation.
Until we pass through judgment we cannot enter the rest of God. Our spirit must become one with the Spirit of Christ. Our natural mind must become part of the Mind of Christ. Our soul dies the hardest death of all for it is the center of our will and judgment. To crucify the soul of man is to slay what the first man is. The first man dies a hard death. We cry out in agony as God kills the self-centeredness in us. There cannot be two separate wills in the universe. There is only one legitimate will in the universe—the will of almighty God as it is expressed in the Lord Jesus the Christ.
The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in earth as it is in Heaven. It is only as we die to our own choices and judgment that we are able to enter unity and harmony with God.
No individual who is determined to have his own way will ever be able to walk in the path that God has laid out for him. Religious people who are filled with their own ambitions and ways cannot enter the rest of God. Neither do they have any hope of appearing with Christ in that Day.
It is the Lord Jesus who, through the Holy Spirit, should be guiding our ministry. It is true that the gifts have been given to us. But we now are to give back all of our gifts and talents to the Lord so He can use them as He will. The gifts we have been given are subject to us. But this does not mean that we are to use our gifts according to our own understanding. We ourselves along with our gifts are to be subject to the Holy Spirit of God. Only then can we enter the rest of God and enable others to enter the rest of God.
Jude teaches that while God brings us out of Egypt on eagles’ wings, we must persevere in faith and patience throughout the distresses and deprivations of the wilderness. If we do not, the plan of redemption is brought to a halt. We are not permitted to continue to the rest of God, to Canaan, to the goal that God has ordained for us.
The heirs of the rest of God, of the “Tabernacles” experience, are those who patiently keep the commandments of God and hold steadfastly to the faith of Jesus. They do not walk in the flesh. They do not attempt to take a shortcut to the fulfillment of the vision God has given them. They do not participate in the faith or prosperity messages or in any other self-realization technique, or follow their own spiritual ambitions. Instead, they wait on the Lord. They “die in the Lord.”
Heaven and earth are waiting for someone to believe and obey God. Belief and obedience are the proper response for someone seeking to enter the rest of God, not plans, programs, and personal ambition no matter how clothed in religious words and designs.
Christ is the Amen of God. One of the issues surrounding the church of the Laodiceans is that of saying Amen to the will, the Kingdom, of God. He who would be an overcomer, a member of the spotless Bride of the Lamb, must become part of the Amen—the Lord Jesus the Christ.
Those who add their Amen to that of the Lord Jesus will enter the rest of God, ceasing from their own works. Those who do not add their Amen to the Amen that is Christ will fall in the wilderness of unbelief. They will be overcome by the pressures of life.
To enter the rest of God we must exercise faith and obedience. The death of the Israelites during their wilderness wandering is employed to warn today’s saints that it is possible to start on the journey of salvation and then not enter the inheritance.
Man consists of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Man has not attained eternal life, the fullness of redemption, the promised-land rest of God, until he has attained to the resurrection of his spirit, the resurrection of his soul, and the resurrection of his body.
THE PROCESS OF ENTERING THE REST OF GOD
Moving Past Pentecost Through Divine Judgment to the Fullness of God
Jesus always is moving forward. If we are to abide in Him we must continue believing and pressing forward in Him until we enter the promised-land rest of God.
We must pursue the “rest of God” every day of our discipleship. We must fear that after having been given the marvelous promises of God we then come short of the Divine rest. We must overcome all forces and things that would prevent our resting in the center of the Lord’s will. If we do we will attain to the first resurrection from the dead.
We saints, the members of the royal priesthood, enter the rest of God on the condition that we continue steadfastly in Christ every day of our pilgrimage in the world. If we stumble we are to get back up on our feet and fight on. The Lord will forgive us as we repent and keep on pressing ahead in Him.
How does one work out what already has been accomplished? How does one cease from his own works and press into the rest of God?
Speaking in tongues enables us to enter the “rest of God.” As we speak in tongues we cease from our own works and yield to the burden of God’s Spirit. God has been resting since He created the world, knowing that all He has planned shall come to pass. We are to enter that rest, and speaking in tongues helps us to do so.
A Study Guide for the Book of First Corinthians
God has given us the ability to speak in tongues so that we might learn how to yield our spirit to the spirit of God and thus to enter the Sabbath rest of God. Tongues are the rest and the refreshing for those who look constantly to God for guidance and strength from His Spirit.
We can begin now to receive by faith the coming of Christ into us in a greater way than we have known. We can cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He cleanses us from sin and self-seeking. We also can begin to experience the rest of God as God settles down to rest in us and we learn to rest and abide in God through Christ.
Tabernacles, and the Coming of the Lord
The “trumpet” is the trumpet of war. The Lord strong and majestic in battle approaches the “everlasting doors “ of our soul. If we open to Him and allow Him to cast out of us all that is displeasing to Him, we begin to enter the rest of God. God then is able, through Christ, to settle down to rest in us.
No human being has the power or wisdom to rid himself or herself of sin. As we confess our sins, renouncing them in the name of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit breaks the hold Satan has on us. There is victory—total victory—over Satan in the name of the Lord Jesus. We have come to the Day of Vengeance of our God. God through Christ is enabling the members of the Body of Christ to cast aside the works of darkness and to enter the promised-land rest of God.
None of these unclean elements of the human personality is part of the Character of the Lord Jesus. If we cling to any of them we will come short of the Glory of God. They never will be permitted to become part of the Body of Christ. They absolutely must be crucified and driven from us completely if we would attain the promised-land rest of God.
As we press into Christ each day the Father, working through the Holy Spirit, brings every enemy of Christ in us under the feet of Christ. As the Spirit of God casts out the enemy we enter into our inheritance, into the “rest of God.” When God has finished removing the enemy from His Church, God, through the Church, shall remove the enemy from all the heavens and the earth.
A Study Guide for the Book of Hebrews
Perhaps the most difficult lesson to be mastered by the believer as he seeks to enter the rest of God is that of looking to the Spirit of God for the wisdom and strength to respond correctly in every situation of life. Our mind is a tremendous obstacle to our progress in God. We must be transformed by the renewing of our mind if we would be able to do the will of God.
It is time to enter the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. It is time to lay aside our own life so that we may be filled with the Life of Jesus. It is time to press on past salvation, past the baptism with the Holy Spirit, to the fullness of the rest of God.
All that we are must die and be renewed in Christ before God can find rest in us. There is room for only one will in the universe, and that is the will of God. Those who love Jesus rejoice in the loss of their striving and individual ideas concerning the way things should be and are glad to enter the rest of God and accept the creation of all things according to His will. Is this true of you as yet? It is true of all who have been completely reconciled to God and His Christ.
Our goal is the rest of God—the place of perfect abiding in Christ. This is the “Tabernacles” experience. Before we can find rest in the feast of Tabernacles we first must pass through the Divine judgment. The fifth and sixth feasts, Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, portray the Divine judgment through which the Church must pass in order to become the unblemished Bride of the Lamb.
The Inner and Outer Kingdom of God
We have died to the Law of Moses that we lawfully may be married to Christ. The marriage brings forth the righteous thoughts, words, and actions of Christ, and these behaviors are righteous because they are the thoughts, words, and actions of God Himself. God has promised to Judah and Jerusalem His Divine Life and Presence. The Lord Himself becomes our righteousness, our Sabbath, as we enter the rest of God: as we cease from our own thoughts, words, and deeds, choosing instead to abide in the thoughts, words, and deeds of God.
The result of righteousness is peace. We cannot enter the rest of God or help others to enter the rest of God until God begins to deliver us from “the body of this death,” that is, from the sin that dwells in us.
The Inner and Outer Kingdom of God
We are to set aside our personal ambitions and give ourselves wholeheartedly to Christ and to His Gospel. We now are the servant of the Lord. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, through the ministries, through our environment and circumstances, proceeds to deliver us from the spirit of the world, from all unrighteousness, all spiritual uncleanness, and all disobedience to God.
As all sin and rebellion are driven from us, eternal life, love, joy, peace, and wisdom increase in us. When all unrighteousness, uncleanness, and disobedience have been purged from us, and we have been filled with the Life of Christ, then we have arrived at the spiritual resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:11). We have entered the promised-land rest of God.
The King comes to us and through the Spirit of God removes from us all that is not in harmony with God’s Person. As soon as the cleansing has been accomplished, the Father and the Son enter us and make Their eternal abode in us. Now we are in the rest of God and are prepared and ready to participate in all of the Divine purposes and programs. Now we understand the heavenly romance and the significance of the Song of Solomon.
The Inner and Outer Kingdom of God
If we do not respond with sincerity and diligence, the calling and Divine provisions are of little use. They bring us to the first resurrection from the dead only as we lay hold on them. They are not Divine pronouncements concerning what will happen to us regardless of our response. Rather, they are the Divine opportunities for us to fight our way into the promised-land rest of God.
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
To cease pressing into the rest of God is to draw back to destruction. There is no middle ground, no place of pausing, of vacillating in carelessness or indecision. The spiritual tides, the enemies, are too strong for that. The inheritance is so vast, so magnificent, that not to reach for it at all times is to be unworthy of it. God is the Greatest of all kings. He has summoned us to sit with Him on His throne, to eat at His table, to share in His very Life. The human being who is too busy to devote his full attention to responding to this summons is not worthy of the feast God has prepared. He will not taste of the abundance the love of God has set before us.
The old covenant commands us to live in God on the seventh day of the week. The new covenant commands us to live in God seven days of the week. We are directed to present our body to God a living sacrifice. The requirement to present his body to God a living sacrifice was not placed on the Jew of the old covenant. He kept the Sabbath one day of the week. We enter the eternal Sabbath, the eternal rest of God, as our Adamic nature is crucified and the risen Christ is formed in us.
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
The ancient moral commandments (not the ceremonial statutes) concerning adultery, murder, and so forth, are binding on Christians. The commandment concerning the Sabbath is kept by us as we enter the rest of God, as we present our body a living sacrifice. While the Jew was commanded to set apart one day each week for the purpose of ceasing from his works and delighting himself in the Lord, the Christian is required to give himself wholly to Jesus at all times, not practicing his own works or finding his own pleasure (Isaiah 58:13).
The True Nature of the New Covenant
The body of eternal life, the body that is being prepared for us in Heaven as we seek and serve the Lord, is an important part of the rest of God. We must learn to walk in the power of resurrection life today and begin to gain victory as the Holy Spirit leads us, over our sins of deed, word, motive, and imagination. Then we will be ready for the final work of redemption of our personality when the Lord Jesus appears from Heaven with His majestic angels.
The victorious saints now are turning aside from all of their own interests, even their interests in the ministry of the Gospel, in order that they may think God’s thoughts, speak God’s words, and do what God is commanding. They are seeking the rest of God—the rest in which the Lord Jesus is their Life. They are submitting to crucifixion with their Lord. They now are living by His Life, His thoughts, His words, His actions. They are learning to live by the power of Christ’s resurrection. They are willing to share His sufferings. They count all of their personal accomplishments as so much rubbish in order that they may gain Christ. They are in the anguish of travail that Christ may be formed in them. They are bringing forth the Son, the Ruler of the ages to come. They are passing from the spiritual fulfillment of Pentecost (the rain from Heaven) to the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles (the creating of the Throne of God in them so that out from them may flow the waters of eternal life). They are living by Christ’s Person and Presence just as Christ lives by God’s Person and Presence. They are eating Him and drinking Him at all times.
The Destruction of the Last Enemy
Today the Holy Spirit is announcing to the Church that it is time to press forward to total victory over the enemy. Let every one of us set aside every other interest and concentrate on conquering completely in the spiritual area of the rest of God. Then, when the Lord appears, we shall be ready to appear with Him and bring destruction upon God’s enemies, and the blessings of Heaven to those who fear the Lord.
TOPICAL INDEX
To better acquaint the reader with the whole scope of Robert B. Thompson’s writings, and in particular, to provide a means of pursuing more in-depth understanding of any particular area of interest, a topical index of book/booklet titles follows. Each can be downloaded at no cost by clicking/tapping on its title.
ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH
The Continuity of the Testaments
The Convergence
Israel—God’s Conqueror
Israel Is the Church
Israel—Spirit and Flesh
Jerusalem
The Olive Tree
One New Man
One Salvation
Two Israels? Two Kingdoms? Two Second Comings?
Which Kingdom?
You Are My People
THE LAST DAYS AND THE SECOND COMING
The Age of ReconciliationThe Ark of His Covenant
The Army of the Lord
The Clock Starts Ticking Again
The Coming of the Kingdom
The Coming of the Lord
The Coming of the Throne
The Day of Christ
The Day of Redemption
The End-Time Judgments
Glorified in His Saints
Laodicea
The Manifestation of Christ
The Message of the Two Witnesses
Overcoming the Saints
Participation in the Parousia
The Purpose of the Great Tribulation
The Remnant
Removing the Tares From the Wheat
Revelation: Chapters Twenty-One and Twenty-Two
The Seven Trumpets
Spiritual Forces of the Last Days
Tabernacles, and the Coming of the Lord
The Tail of the Dragon
Things To Come
The Two Witnesses
The Vision of the Day of the Lord
Who Are the Two Witnesses?
Ye Shall Receive Power
THE MAJOR BIBLE TYPES
Behold the Lamb! (spiritual meaning of Passover)The Blowing of Trumpets
The Day of Atonement
Deuteronomy 16:16
The Feast of Tabernacles
The Feasts of the Lord
Four Types of the Plan of Redemption
From Egypt to Canaan
The Fullness of God
Holiness Unto the Lord
The Kingdom of God is at Hand
The Land of Promise (which we must invade and conquer)
Seven Areas of Reconciliation
The Seven Furnishings of the Tabernacle of the Congregation
Seven Steps to the Rest of God
The Tabernacle of the Congregation
The Tender Agony (spiritual meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles)
The Three Works of Grace
What Comes After Pentecost?
Where We Have Been, Where We Are, Where We Are Going
The Work of Restoration
THE NATURE OF OUR REDEMPTION
Abiding in ChristAspects of the Resurrection of the Saints
Attaining to the Inheritance
Buying the Truth
Called to Be Saints
Change
Choose You this Day!
The Christian and the Ten Commandments
Christians Shall Be Rewarded According to Their Works!
Death and Resurrection—the Heart of the New Covenant
Deliverance from Sin
The Destruction of Righteousness
The Disciple
Dying in the Lord
Eagles’ Wings
Enduring to the End
The Exercise of Faith
The Firstfruits of the Bride
Food Sacrificed to Idols
From Justification to Glorification
The Gift of an Opportunity
Judgment Begins with the Household of God
The Just Shall Live by Faith
Leah and Rachel
Led by the Spirit
The Love of Money
The Mountains of Bashan
The New Creation and the Resurrection
Out of the World or Out of the Evil?
A Prophet to the Nations
The Quest
Relationships
Rivers of Life
The Royal Priesthood
Sodom; Egypt; Jerusalem
Sowing and Reaping
The Terror of the Lord
Three Deaths and Three Resurrections: Volume One
Three Deaths and Three Resurrections: Volume Two
Three Deaths and Three Resurrections: Volume Three
The Three Separations of the Royal Priesthood
A Time to Be Born, and a Time to Die
ORIENTATION TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD
A Basic ConceptEntering the Kingdom of Heaven
Entering the Land of Promise
The Eternal Purpose of God
Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God
God’s Unfolding Plan
Grace—Replaces the Law or Replaces Righteous Behavior?
The Great Commission
The Great Design
The Inner and Outer Kingdom of God (Spanish translation available)
It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking
The Judaic-Christian Salvation
Judgment and Rewards
Kingdom Concepts
The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom from Heaven (Spanish translation available)
Kingdom Instruction from the Book of Joshua
Ministry by the Spirit Rather Than by Organizational Assignment
The Overcomer is the True Christian
The Present Truth (summary of doctrine)
The Rest of God
The Seed and the Nations of the Saved
Seek Ye First… (a year-long devotional)
Three Aspects of God’s Eternal Plan
You Must Be Born Again!
THE PAULINE EPISTLES
A Study Guide for the Book of RomansA Study Guide for the Book of First Corinthians
A Study Guide for The Book of Second Corinthians
A Study Guide for the Book of Galatians
A Study Guide for the Book of Ephesians
A Study Guide for the Book of Philippians
A Study Guide for the Book of Hebrews
THE PERFECTING OF THE CHURCH
John Seventeen, DevotionalEntering Through the Gates
Eternal Life
Fulfilling the Vision
The Gap of Lawlessness
God or Cattle? (from Kingdom Instruction from Book of Joshua)
Going to the Father (from John Seventeen)
The Greatest Lie Ever Told (Spanish translation available)
In My Father’s House
John, Chapter Seventeen
Christ in You (with study guide, from Temple of God)
A Missing Element
The New Jerusalem
Not Under the Law but Under Grace
Perfecting the Church
The Person and Work of Christ
Grace and Its Perversion (Spanish translation available)
The Rebellion
Saved by Faith Alone?
Saved—from Hell to Heaven or from Death to Life?
Scripture or Myth?
The “Singles” Group
So Great Salvation
The Tabernacle of David
The Temple of God
That Which Is Perfect
The Thing Satan Fears Most
Treasures in Heaven (from Revelation Twenty-one and Twenty-Two)
True Unity
Two Kinds of Faith
What is Faith?
What Is Salvation? (tract)
When a Christian Dies
A Wife but Not a Queen
Without Sin unto Salvation (from It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking)
The Word to the Elect (from John Seventeen)
Your Redemption Draws Near
THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
The Anointed DelivererBehold My Servant!
The Conquering Personality
The Conqueror
The Fullness of Salvation
I Will Come to You
The Lord Our Righteousness
The Marriage of the Lamb
The Ruler
Christ
The Pinnacle
Rebuilding The Wall
The Release of the Material Creation
The Three Temptations of Christ
Two Beginnings
The Witness
THE RESURRECTION
First Corinthians, FifteenThe First and Second Resurrections
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection
Philippians 3:11 (Paul’s goal)
The Requirements and Purposes of the Two Resurrections
Resurrection
The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment
The Second Resurrection
Something to Think About! (from First and Second Resurrections)
The True Hope: “Rapture” or Resurrection?
(“For Zion’s Sake…”, 3116-1)