Eternal Judgment

Introduction

There are three major aspects of sin. The first is guilt. The second is power or compulsion, the third is presence. Salvation is deliverance from the guilt, power, and presence of sin.

Deliverance from the guilt of sin is forgiveness.
Deliverance from the power of sin occurs as we confess and forsake our sin. The Holy Spirit takes the life and fire out of the sin so we are able to overcome it.
Deliverance from the presence of sin occurs as the Lord Jesus removes the actual sin resident in our nature, the sin that always is ready to come back to life if we do not keep it under our control.

When we Christians think of the future, whether it be residence in Heaven, or life on the new earth in the Holy City, or service with Christ on this earth during the thousand-year Kingdom Age, we assume sin no longer is present with us.

Although we have come to trust in grace (traditionally interpreted only as forgiveness) during our life on earth, if we think about it we would not want to live in Paradise, in the new Jerusalem, or on the earth during the Kingdom Age, if we and those around us still are behaving in a sinful manner but were forgiven by grace.

How would you like to live in Paradise or in the new Jerusalem if people still were envious, spiteful, angry, jealous, lustful, slanderous, covetous as they are today in the Christian churches? Suppose you were told it doesn’t matter how people behave because God has forgiven us by grace? How would you feel then?

What if you were given a beautiful, large mansion to live in but the people were angry, spiteful, and treacherous like the world of today? Is this part of your hope for the future?

If you will take a little while to consider this problem seriously you may find you are assuming that not only the guilt but also the urges and presence of sin have been dealt with somehow. You hope that sin can never enter Heaven—not even your sin. Am I correct?

If so, then salvation must include deliverance from the guilt, power, and presence of sin if it is to produce the kind of world we desire to live in.

Even if no death or trouble followed sin, the true saint in his or her heart does not wish to live in a sinful environment.

Christians understand that the guilt of our sin was taken care of on the cross of Calvary. The message of forgiveness through the atoning blood of Christ has been preached and taught to the ends of the earth.

However there is a problem with today’s preaching concerning the guilt of our sin. It is that the message of deliverance from guilt, if it is to be presented according to the Bible standard, should always be accompanied by a demand for the most sincere, vigorous repentance. Very often the forgiveness is emphasized today but not the vigorous repentance.

“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times [opportunities] of refreshing [reviving] may come from the presence of the Lord, (Acts 3:19)

The lack of emphasis on thorough repentance may account at least in part for the moral weakness and confusion so evident in the churches.

The Divine redemption deals not only with guilt but also with the power and presence of sin. It appears that the Christian preachers and teachers have come to believe that salvation is primarily forgiveness. If such were the case the new covenant would not be any more effective in dealing with the problem of sin than was true of the Law of Moses.

We must always keep in mind, if we would understand the plan of redemption, that it operates primarily for God’s benefit. God has a problem. His creation is in rebellion. God’s solution is to create sons in the image of Christ who are able, because of their mature character, to sit as judges and rulers over the creation.

If every person on earth were forgiven his sins it still would not solve God’s problem in any manner. But one individual who presses forward in Christ until he is in the moral image of Christ and at rest in God’s will, is a definite part of the solution to God’s problem.

The universal Christian understanding is that somehow, somewhere, sin will be removed from the Church and the Church will be without spot and wrinkle. Also, God in some manner will expel sin from the creation.

Let us look first at the common assumptions of how God intends to deal with the problem of the power and presence of sin, and then go into the Scriptures to see if there is a promise that God will bring sin to an end. Finally we shall consider how and when God will remove sin from the creation.

What are the prevailing ideas concerning the abolishing of sin in the creation?

Once we get to Heaven we cannot sin. There are two problems with this concept. First of all, sin began in Heaven around the throne of God. The problem still is heavenly in origin. Second, if God removed our ability to sin we would no longer be people. We would be robots. Even angels can choose to sin if they so wish!

After we die we cannot sin. Why not? There is no passage of Scripture that states we cannot sin after we die physically. What is to keep us from sinning after we die physically? Sin is disobedience to God’s will. After we die we still shall have a will of our own, and we can choose to disobey God. As part of the plan of salvation the Lord is creating people who won’t sin, not who can’t sin.

There is a separate experience of sanctification in which sin is removed root and branch. After fifty-two years as a Christian we have not seen anyone, including ourselves, in whom at least some aspect of the sinful nature is not present. If there were a separate experience of complete sanctification the Apostles would have stressed this. The Epistles to the churches, which emphasize the necessity for abstaining from the works of the flesh, would keep pointing to the need to take this step of salvation.

The Lord Jesus lived a blameless life and by identifying with Him we also are blameless. If this were true the Epistles would not contain so many warnings concerning the deadly results of living in the sins of the flesh.

God sees us through Jesus; we already are perfect because God sees the perfection of Jesus. There is no Scripture for this. Also, the numerous admonitions of the Apostles would be meaningless.

If you are a Christian you won’t sin; no genuine Christian sins. This would be wonderful if it were true but it is not the case. The Christian churches of our day are filled with the sins found in the world, including child molestation, rage, drunkenness, spite, malice, backbiting, gossip, covetousness, witchcraft, unforgiveness, and every other expression of the personality of Satan. If the only Christians are those who do not sin then there are very few Christians.

Our sins were judged and forgiven on the cross of Calvary and sin no longer is an issue. The guilt of our sin indeed was forgiven on the cross. This holds true as long as we walk in the light and cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He removes the graveclothes of sin from us.

When the Lord comes He will remove our sin nature. There is truth in this concept. However, whether or not we are candidates for the total removal of our sin nature and the donning of an incorruptible body at the coming of the Lord depends on our faithfulness in sowing to the Spirit today.

It is not at all true that we can live a careless life now and at the coming of the Lord be changed into a giant of righteousness who will govern the nations by the power of eternal Divine Life. This is a common teaching and assumption but our common sense plus the Scriptures plus what we have learned about God during our discipleship inform us clearly that such will never happen. Rulership will be given to those who have been faithful with their talents, who have learned to live by the power of Christ’s resurrection and have shared His sufferings.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (Galatians 6:7,8)

The Christian churches are in deception today believing they can walk in the flesh and then reap eternal life by “grace.” This is error and it is destroying the moral strength of the believers.

The Lord can at any time cast all sin from our personality. If He were to do that we would be innocent, being free from the sin nature. But we would not have had developed in us the conquering nature that loves righteousness and hates wickedness.

Since God is creating kings and priest who will govern and judge His creation forever, including the angels themselves, it is not enough that the new rulers be released from the sin nature with which they were born. They also must have had created in them the conquering personality. The development of such a personality can come only through resisting sin fiercely and through suffering. We learn obedience through suffering. The cross and the crown go together. It is only those who suffer with Christ who will rule the works of God’s hands.

Will God Remove Sin From His Creation?

Let us look now at the Scriptures and see if God intends to actually remove sin from His creation.

“Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. (Daniel 9:24)

“To make an end of sins.” Think of it. The Scriptures declare plainly that God shall make an end of sins.

We have a dramatic occurrence along this same line in Revelation.

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:9)

This marks the beginning of the end for Satan. So we see that it is in God’s plan to make an end of sin and Satan.

As to God’s purpose concerning the Bride of the Lamb:

that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)

A perfect Church—not perfect by imputed righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God but by inwrought righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God.

The next question is, how and when is God going to put an end to sin in His creation? How, is by the power of God’s Spirit working on the authority of the blood of the cross. When, is in the last days, that is, God’s eternal judgment on sin will begin with His Church and it will be in the last days.

For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)

First, Christ the sinless One came to earth. Christ lived on this earth for thirty-three years without sin. Think of it!

Next, there is coming out of the ranks of the believers a warlike remnant of saints. The Lord is judging them now. They now are being revealed before the Judgment Seat of Christ. As they cooperate with the Lord He is enabling them to recognize and confess and renounce their sins. When they do the urge to sin is diminished enough for them to keep from sinning. In the Lord’s time He will remove even the presence of the sins from them. It is an eternal judgment and the beginning of the release of the creation from sin.

Next in line is the remainder of the Church, the family of God.

Finally the nations of saved people on the earth will be delivered from sin. The nations will then be kept from further sin by those who govern them, that is, the sons of God.

There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)

This is how God will put an end to sin in the environment of His people. All sinners, including Satan, his angels, and those who worship them, will be confined for eternity much as those with a dreadful, contagious disease are isolated. Perhaps God’s rulers, when they see someone making up his mind whether or not he should disobey God, will take the offender on a “field trip” to look at those who are incarcerated in the flames.

Those who believe God is too harsh concerning His judgment on sin are already on the side of Antichrist, of Satan. They have joined the ranks of the people who are ready to shake their fist at God.

Whose side are you on—on the side of man or on the side of God?

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!

The Old Testament tells of the One who is coming to purify the members of the royal priesthood.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:3)

Does the New Testament point toward a deliverance from sin that will come in the last days?

“Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.
“The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,
“and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
“Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! (Matthew 13:40-43)
They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (I Peter 4:5)
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? (I Peter 4:17)

We see from the above that the Judgment Seat of Christ began in the first century, that it involved people who were living as well as those who were dead, and that it commenced with the house of God. The judgment is being intensified in our day.

The new covenant from its beginning contains the provision for not only forgiving but also removing sin from all who will accept God’s plan of salvation.

Why, then, haven’t those who have gone before us found the new-covenant method of overcoming and removing the sin found in the believers? Perhaps some did. But as we examine Church history we see that God works in periods of emphasis.

“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times [opportunities] of refreshing [reviving] may come from the presence of the Lord,
“and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,
“whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19-21)

We notice from the above passage that the coming of the Lord is a multistaged event. There will be seasons and times of refreshing and restoration. This was true of speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues has always been a scriptural experience. But it appears to have been largely hidden from God’s people until this century. The same is true of the gifts of the Spirit and the emphasis on the Body of Christ.

The new covenant has always advised us to put to death the deeds of our flesh. But the eternal significance of this action was not impressed on us to the extent that is true today.

The New Testament informs us that salvation will come at the end of the Christian Era. By salvation we mean deliverance from the guilt and especially the power and presence of sin. Such salvation is of the very essence of the new covenant.

He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Hebrews 9:26)

As to the appearing of salvation in the last days:

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. (Hebrews 9:27,28)

We do not believe the above passage refers to the coming of the Lord in the clouds of glory but to the appearing of the Lord prior to His worldwide coming. The Lord will appear first in the Spirit to those who are looking for Him in order to prepare His Bride for the first resurrection from the dead. When the Lord at a later time comes to the world it will be as a thief who surprises the wicked by the ferocity of His anger and the strength of His power.

Notice carefully above: “To those who eagerly wait for Him.” When the Lord finally comes to the world as a thief accompanied by His saints and holy angels, every eye will see Him, not just those who are looking for Him.

As to an appearing of the Lord to His saints and not to the world, observe carefully:

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21)

We do not believe there will be a pre-advent bodily “rapture” of the believers, because it is not found in the Scriptures. But there certainly shall be a pre-advent manifestation of the Lord to His disciples that will not be known to the world.

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:22,23)

The above passage is setting forth the spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles, which must be preceded by the Day of Atonement, that is, by a judging and cleansing of those in whom the Father and the Son will come to dwell.

To review what we have stated thus far: the new covenant provides for deliverance from the guilt and power of sin. Also the presence of sin is to be removed from the camp just as the scapegoat was removed from the camp of the Israelites during the Day of Atonement.

“But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:10)

The procedure is simple. After we have put our faith in the blood atonement, have been baptized in water, have been forgiven our sins, have passed from death to life, and are living as a disciple of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit will begin the program of removing the graveclothes of sin and death from us.

The worldliness in our personality is destroyed as we turn away from involvement in the world system and behave as a soldier of Christ.

The sins of the flesh are put to death as the Holy Spirit points them out to us and we confess them clearly and renounce them firmly, resisting them through the grace Christ gives. We do this in anticipation of the Day when the Lord appears and finally removes the very presence of sin from us.

Our self-will is destroyed as we patiently bear our cross behind Christ. We remain in the prison of the Lord. We accept situations that are painful to us. We wait for the fulfillment of our intense desires, we do not break out of prison and grasp what we think we want.

We always give thanks to God and ask for what we want. But we do not budge until the Lord tells us what to do about our wishes. We put our treasures, our hopes, our intense desires, in Heaven. We love not our life to the death.

Our will and character must be transformed if we expect the Lord at His coming to remove the sin that is dwelling in us. Our sinful nature comprises both the sin that dwells in us, that is alien to us, and also our own disobedience, worldliness, and self-love. These are transformed into stern obedience and love for God as we fight against the sin resident in us.

The above three deliverances, from the world, from sin, and from self-will constitute an eternal judgment on our personality. The evil is forgiven and removed and will not be brought up later. This is the Judgment Seat of Christ and it prepares us for our part in the first resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of the royal priesthood.

Once having been saved, filled with God’s Spirit of Life, and having experienced the program of removing sin from our personality, we never are to turn back to our old life. If we do we are in danger of not finding an opportunity to repent. We may not be able to turn to the Lord and begin the program of salvation again.

The days of babyhood are over for some of us. The real thing, the taking of the Kingdom of God, has begun. It is for you if this is what you desire. But once you put your hand to the plow you never are to look back, not in this world or the next.

The Book of Hebrews Contrasts the Two Covenants

It sometimes is claimed that sin was never really forgiven under the old covenant, that the purpose of the animal sacrifices was to point to Christ on the cross. The superiority of the new covenant is that now sins really are forgiven whereas before the sacrifices were merely a shadow of the reality to come. This is not a true concept.

While it certainly is true that the sacrifice of animals portrayed the atoning death of Christ on the cross, nevertheless sins truly were forgiven under the old covenant, according to the Scriptures. The entrance of the Israelites into the land of Canaan is a type of our entrance into the rest of God where all our enemies are put under our feet. Nevertheless the war conducted under Joshua was a genuine battle and there was a genuine inheritance.

Notice the following:

“So the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD, and he shall be forgiven for any one of these things that he may have done in which he trespasses.” (Leviticus 6:7)

The Scripture cannot be broken: “It shall be forgiven him.” This says nothing about looking forward to Christ. The sin was forgiven when the sacrifice was made. Amen.

There are many similar passages in the Old Testament.

The superiority of the new is not that now sins really are forgiven. The superiority of the new is that the power of sin is broken and finally the presence of the sin is removed.

The believers to whom the Book of Hebrews was written were experienced saints. They had been saved and filled with the Spirit for many years. Now they were lapsing back into sin. The Book of Hebrews was written to warn them that they were in danger of dying in the wilderness, so to speak, just as did the Israelites. In this case they would not be a partaker of Christ.

They were exhorted to enter the rest of God, the position in Christ where sin was removed from them for eternity. Every passage in Hebrews must be interpreted with this warning in mind.

Let us look at some of the verses of Hebrews that contrast the Law of Moses and the new covenant.

Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? (Hebrews 7:11)

“Therefore, if perfection.” The Book of Hebrews calls the Lord’s people to the perfection of the new covenant. Is this perfection limited to perfect forgiveness of sins only or does the perfection include the perfect removal of the very presence of sin?

For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, (Hebrews 7:18)

The Law of Moses is seen to be weak and unprofitable. How so, if forgiveness of sin was possible? It was not weak and unprofitable in terms of the forgiveness of sin!

Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

What does it mean to be saved to the uttermost? Does it mean to be forgiven for eternity so that it does not matter whether or not one is transformed in personality, whether or not a new creation of righteousness has come forth?

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. (Hebrews 8:7)

The Law of Moses was imperfect. What was it, precisely, that it did not accomplish?

“not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. (Hebrews 8:9)

In what manner did the Israelites not continue in the covenant? Was it that they refused to offer the sacrifices, thereby not gaining the desired forgiveness? Or was it that they practiced sin? If the problem was that they continued to practice sin, then the inference is that there is provision in the new covenant to produce righteous behavior, thus making the new covenant superior to the old.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Hebrews 8:10)

We see from the verse above that the new covenant, while it includes an eternal forgiveness of sin, is directed primarily at the creation of a new righteous personality, a personality that obeys the commandments of the Lord.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews was not warning the Jewish believers that they were not eternally forgiven. He was warning them that their behavior was leading them into the fires of judgment and that they would not inherit Christ—even after having been eternally forgiven!

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:12)

The redemption that is through the Lord Jesus is intended to be eternal. It will prove to be eternal unless we neglect to press into the rest of God, into the place where we are candidates for the removal of sin at the coming of the Lord. If this is not the case, what is motivating the writer to warn these believers to exhort one another daily concerning the deceitfulness of sin?

He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. (Hebrews 9:26-28)

At His first coming Christ made an atonement for sin. What, then, does it mean when it says he shall appear the second time without sin for salvation? What salvation? We would expect the verse to say that Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and by doing so He saved them. What salvation will come to us at His appearing?

We do not believe that the appearing mentioned here is Christ’s return to the world. It says “To those who eagerly wait for Him.” We believe that the salvation here is referring to the removal of the presence of sin from those who look for Him, that there will be a pre-advent appearing of Christ to His Church to remove all the spots and wrinkles. It is the salvation prepared for the last time, the righteousness we are hoping will be ours at the appearing of the Lord.

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. (Hebrews 10:1)

What does it mean, can never make those who approach perfect? It means that the presence of sin remained with them. Even when they were making their sacrifice they realized that they would be back next year with their offering for the guilt of their sins.

God desires that we come to Him with a perfect conscience, being without condemnation, meanwhile pressing forward to the rest of God. To continue in the same old sins and not enter the Holy of Holies in order to gain the grace to put our sins to death is to neglect our salvation, to not work it out with fear and trembling. We will not escape the anger of God if we do not press forward toward God’s perfect will for our life. God wants the “those who approach” to be perfect! He has the power to make us perfect if we will keep looking to Him, not neglecting the assembling of ourselves together.

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. (Hebrews 10:4)

Notice it does not state it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could remove the guilt of our sins, rather, the blood of bulls and goats could not remove the sins themselves from us.

The superiority of the new covenant is that it removes the presence of sins from us. It takes away sins.

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. (Hebrews 10:11)

The Law of Moses forgave sins but could never remove them.

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. (Hebrews 10:12,13)

Christ’s enemies are the sins that are in people. Now that He has purchased eternal forgiveness of guilt He is waiting for the Father to remove sin from the creation. The new covenant is superior in that it is designed to make an end of sin itself.

Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”
But we are not of those who draw back to perdition [destruction], but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:38,39)

We must keep on believing until our soul is saved, that is, until it is loosed completely from sin. What the term believing means is defined by the following chapter, Chapter Eleven. We find there that believing has nothing to do with religious philosophy (I believe this, I believe that, and so forth). Rather it concerns our heart’s attitude toward God and especially our obedience to His revealed will.

Do we who believe draw back or do we keep on pressing forward to the rest of God? To draw back means to cease pressing forward to the rest of God. Even though we have been eternally redeemed, if we draw back from following the Lord our end will be destruction.

We are commanded by the Book of Hebrews to press forward to the rest of God, that is, to the place where all our enemies have been put under our feet and we are in the Sabbath rest of God’s perfect will.

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. (Hebrews 4:1)

Since some of the verses of Hebrews, Chapter Seven through Ten could be interpreted to mean the new covenant is a kind of super-forgiveness, we must remind ourselves of the passages that clearly are speaking about godly behavior, and that the penalty for not behaving in a godly manner is destruction, not salvation in the Day of the Lord.

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1)
lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. (Hebrews 12:16,17)

Bible scholars who are attempting to prove that no believer need have any fear of being rejected because of his behavior (because he is saved by grace alone and not by works, as the current deception goes) are maintaining that if a person fornicates he is not a true Christian.

Their position is weak on two counts. First, numerous Christians fornicate. Are we to say they are not genuine Christians?

Second, this position proves our point that Christians are known by righteous conduct, not by an abstract grace unrelated to behavior.

Another passage of Hebrews that demonstrates beyond doubt that the believer who does not move forward in the practice of righteousness is facing dire consequences is as follows:

For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;
but if it bears thorns and briars [neglectful Christians], it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:7,8)

The above passage means that if the believer is not growing in righteous conduct he is liable to be rejected by the Lord and is near to cursing. His end will be fiery destruction, just as the Lord Jesus warned us concerning the branch in Him that did not bear fruit.

How modern teachers answer these passages we do not know. Hopefully the eyes of many of God’s leaders will be opened to the word of righteousness in the days to come. Otherwise the harvest of the present generation will be tragic.

The new covenant is a superior covenant, not because it forgives sin nor because the worshiper need not return again and again with his offering but because it contains the authority and power to make an end of sin.

The new covenant makes an end of the power of sin as we call upon God to help us put to death the unclean urges that reside in our flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)

The Lord Jesus will come and remove the presence of sin from those who are looking for Him. This salvation will take place in the last days. We must be eligible and competent for such total deliverance by turning away from the world, by taking up our cross and following the Lord in stern obedience to the Father, and by putting to death through the Spirit the unholy, unrighteous tendencies of our fallen nature.

If we do not obey the commandments of the Lord and His Apostles we will not inherit the Kingdom of God, which is another way of saying we will not be candidates for the removal of the presence of sin from us in the Day of the Lord.

The new covenant delivers us from the guilt, the compulsive power, and the presence of sin. Because of this total deliverance the new covenant is superior to the Law of Moses.

The Program of Salvation

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1,2)

“And of eternal judgment.”

Let us think for a moment about the process of salvation. Salvation is deliverance from the guilt, power, and presence of sin. Man comes into the world with tendencies toward loving and trusting the world and the things of the world, with various lusts and passions dwelling in his flesh, and with self-will, self-centeredness, and self-love strongly entrenched in his personality. All of this is his inheritance from Satan, a rebellious cherub.

It is easy for man to sin, very difficult for him to behave righteously, to think, speak, and act in a holy manner, and to obey God faithfully. It is easy for man to serve and worship Satan (or so it seems!), very difficult to serve and worship God (or so it seems!). Actually the Lord is a loving and kind Master whose commandments are not grievous while Satan is a harsh, cruel master who never can be satisfied. But Satan has convinced the churches we are not able to keep God’s commandments and we must keep on sinning. This is a lie.

The purpose of the program of salvation is to move man from the power of Satan to the power of God.

The following are some of the major steps of the program of salvation:

God draws us to Christ.
God sprinkles the Passover blood of protection on us so we are not condemned with the world.
God assigns our adamic nature, our first personality, to the cross with Christ.
God puts His Holy Spirit in our personality and Christ is born in us.
God raises our new born-again nature to His right hand in Christ.
God judges and removes from our personality all that is unrighteous, all that is unholy, and all that is disobedient and self-seeking. This is an eternal judgment.
God forms Christ in us.
The Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit take up Their eternal residence in our transformed personality.
Our physical body is raised from the dead and then clothed with our house from Heaven, the white robe of righteousness that has been formed as we have obeyed the Holy Spirit throughout our discipleship.
God assigns us to the various roles and tasks we now are eligible and competent to perform.

In our day we are placing an unscriptural emphasis on the beginning aspect of salvation to the neglect of the process and the goal. The product of this overemphasis is people who “make a decision for Christ” and then fall away; make another decision for Christ and then fall away; make another decision for Christ and then fall away. There are many such individuals in jail at the present time where they go to a Bible study and make another “decision for Christ.” They make a decision for Christ because they want to please God, they want to be righteous. But what they are being taught is a philosophy, a system of belief, not the Divine salvation.

It absolutely is necessary that salvation begin in our life with a decisive, clear-cut action. We must turn away from our own attempts to save ourselves. We must put our faith in the blood atonement made by the Lord Jesus. We must repent of our sinful behavior and renounce the things we are doing we know to be sinful.

We must be baptized in water, declaring we have died to the world and now are raised with Christ that we might enter the Kingdom of God. These actions must be performed clearly and decisively.

But this is just the beginning. After this there is a life to be lived in which we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling—not as today with gleeful overconfidence but with fear and trembling that we might be faithful in pleasing God.

We have been given the piano, now we need to learn how to play it. Otherwise the Christian Gospel is to us a religious philosophy, not the power of God to salvation.

Then there is the Day of Salvation that is coming in which Christ will remove the presence of sin from us and clothe us with a robe of righteousness. The robe of righteousness is fashioned as we keep putting to death, through the Spirit of God, the sinful deeds of our body. In the Day of the Lord we shall be clothed with a body from Heaven that has been formed as we have put to death the deeds of our body on the earth. We are going to reap exactly what we have sown.

Salvation has a specific beginning, a specific program, a specific conclusion. Remember, salvation is defined as complete deliverance from the guilt, power, and presence of sin. Each of us has been given a mark toward which to press. There is a conclusion of the work of salvation, not a conclusion of growing in the Lord but a conclusion of the work of delivering us from the guilt, power, and presence of sin. Such deliverance is not completed at the beginning of our salvation but at the end.

It is not the beginning that saves us but the end. He who endures to the end is the person who is saved. We can go through the program successfully as long as we keep our eyes on the Lord. But if we grow cold and neglectful we are heading back toward the fire that will consume the adversaries of God. This is what the Book of Hebrews teaches us.

God is granting revivals of repentance in the United States in the present hour. This may prove to be our last opportunity to seek the Lord. Let us make sure we do not, after repenting, grow cold again. (There may not be another opportunity to repent!) Let us rather press forward to the finish line so we may be saved (delivered from the presence of sin) in the Day of the Lord. We will be made a partaker of Christ if we hold fast our confidence steadfastly to the end.

God draws us to Christ.

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

We turn away from our own attempts to save ourselves and put our trust in the atoning blood of Christ.

So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)

We repent of our sins, renouncing our former way of life.

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

We are baptized in water in obedience to God.

“He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:16)

This is the manner in which we begin the program of salvation. We have found the gate to eternal life and now the race through the many obstacles begins.

God sprinkles the Passover blood of protection on us so we are not condemned with the world.

to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:24)

The work of salvation produces a new creation. All of the grace of God plays a part in forming the new creation, including the written Word of God, the body and blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the gifts and ministries given to the members of the Body of Christ, and the various chastenings and tribulations we endure.

The end result of the working of Divine grace is a person who is in the image of Christ and who is dwelling in untroubled rest in the Father through Christ.

It is the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus on us that makes all this possible. The blood of the Lamb provides the Divine authority so Satan is not able at any point to call into question God’s righteousness in forgiving us and bringing us along the path to eternal life.

However, the blood shields us from Divine judgment only as long as we walk in the light of God’s Presence and will.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another [with God], and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (I John 1:7)

The horrible error of our day is the belief that the blood continues to protect us even though we are not serving God as we should, even though we are not walking in the light of God’s will. This error has resulted from a misunderstanding of Paul’s argument against the continuation of the Law of Moses, as discussed in Romans, Chapters Two through Five.

Paul’s declaration that we are saved by grace rather than by the strict observance of the Law of Moses has been interpreted by Gentiles to mean we are saved by grace (defined as unconditional, perpetual forgiveness) rather than through a godly change in our behavior.

But the fact is, it is the godly change that itself is the salvation. This is difficult for us to perceive if we always have believed that to be saved is to go to Heaven when we die.

Justification has been enlarged until sanctification has all but disappeared as a part of salvation. Yet the New Testament has far more to say about sanctification than it does about justification!

There is a hodge-podge of misunderstanding. If to be saved is to be delivered from the guilt, power, and presence of sin, and it certainly is, then to say we are saved apart from a change into a godly personality is to say we are saved apart from being saved.

The blood of Jesus delivers us from the guilt of sin and provides the continuing authority for the process of delivering us from the power of sin. However, when we are not following on to know the Lord we come under the judgment of God.

But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. (I Corinthians 11:32)

To maintain we go to live forever in Paradise on the basis of making a statement of belief in Christ, regardless of whether we obey the commandments of the Lord, is to be in direct opposition to the clear teaching of the Scripture. It is to bring one’s self and one’s hearers to destruction.

He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (I John 2:4)

God assigns our adamic nature, our first personality to the cross with Christ.

knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (Romans 6:6)

How much easier it would be to teach people concerning the forming of the new creation if they had been told when they were baptized in water that they were going down into the death of the Lord Jesus, and that when they came out of the water they left their adamic nature on the cross with the Lord.

The believers of today have been presented with such a “cheap” gospel that they are not prepared for the teaching of discipleship. The concept of presenting their body a living sacrifice to God is foreign to them. They imagine Jesus is forgiving them as long as they attend church and make some attempt to behave righteously (some do not do even this much). They suppose they are to live much the same as other people.

When they are challenged to not be so involved in the things of the world they protest, “I am saved by grace and not by works.”

When they are informed they must put to death the deeds of the old man they cheerfully announce, “As long as I am in the world I have to sin. Nobody’s perfect!”

When they are told they must surrender their self-will and self-love, take up their cross, and follow Jesus, they say, “I’ve got to be me. The Gospel is supposed to be good news and you are making it unpleasant!”

They are bent on saving their life. Thus they remain barren of the fruit of righteousness. No growth takes place. They are unchanged after fifty years of attending church.

This is the American Christian in many instances!

Such a believer never comes to know the joy of salvation. His or her joy is the joy of the flesh. It vanishes when enough trouble appears.

The true joy of the Lord is found when we abandon our life to the Lord, counting ourselves as dead to the adamic nature and alive in the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus. When this is true of us we have no problem with coming out of the world, not being conformed to its values and ways. We rejoice as the Lord delivers us from the lusts and passions of the carnal nature. We keep on following the Lord, even when He calls for our “Isaac.”

This is the true Christian.

It is only as we reckon ourselves to be dead to our first personality and alive in Jesus that the work of salvation can proceed in our life.

God puts His Holy Spirit in our personality and Christ is born in us.

“And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” (Acts 5:32)
having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, (I Peter 1:23)
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. (John 5:24)

We have turned away from the world, have been sprinkled with the atoning blood, and have left our old nature in the waters of baptism. God touches us with eternal life, the Life that the Godhead Is. The Incorruptible Seed, a portion of Christ, is planted in our personality.

Now we have two natures. The first nature we count as dead with Christ on the cross. The new nature has been conceived in us. The new nature does not sin because it has been born of God.

who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)

Although the old man is counted as dead on the cross with Christ it still is very much alive in us. The new Seed also is alive. Each day we must give place to one or the other of these two natures. The old nature is darkness and death. The new nature is light and life. If we sow to the old nature we will reap shame and corruption, or worse, in the Day of Resurrection. If we sow to the new nature we will reap eternal life in the Day of Resurrection.

For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (Galatians 6:8)

The old nature is of the earth, earthy, and it remains on the earth.

The new nature is of Heaven. It is heavenly and it is caught up in Christ to the right hand of God in Heaven.

God raises our new born-again nature to His right hand in Christ.

and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 2:6)
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)

How different the new covenant is from the Law of Moses! Under the Law of Moses the old nature, which is desperately wicked, was commanded to keep the moral law of God. This, of course, is impossible. Therefore God provided animal sacrifices so the Israelite could have his sins forgiven and obtain peace with God.

The new covenant sends the old nature to the cross and then creates a new nature characterized by righteous behavior. The new nature is raised to the right hand of God in Christ.

Since a genuine death and resurrection have taken place in our personality we now are eligible to proceed to the destruction of sin in our personality and the forming of Christ in us.

Remember, salvation is defined as deliverance from the guilt, power, and presence of sin. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Since the guilt has been taken care of by our faith in Christ, the part that remains has to do with deliverance from the power and presence of sin.

There were seven feasts of the Lord as outlined in the twenty-third chapter of the Book of Leviticus. The feasts of the Lord provide a useful portrayal of the full program of redemption.

Passover.
Unleavened Bread.
Firstfruits.
Pentecost.

At this point, we have been covered with the blood, have died in water baptism, a firstfruits of our personality has been raised in Christ to the right hand of God in Heaven, and we have the Holy Spirit, the eternal Life of God, dwelling in us. It is time now for God to emphasize the last three feasts.
Trumpets.
Day of Atonement.
Tabernacles.

The final three feasts are to be fulfilled before the Lord returns. We are in a new day of the Lord’s workings. The spiritual experiences typified by these last three feasts have always been in the Bible, have always been available to God’s people.

But it may be noticed that at periods throughout history God emphasizes specific aspects of salvation. In our day the Spirit of God is urging us to move past Pentecost to the last three feasts.

The Blowing of Trumpets means that after we have been filled with God’s Spirit the Lord Jesus will come to us as the Man of War, the Lord of Armies. He will declare war on the sin that is in us and also will train us to march in His army.

The Day of Atonement represents the reconciliation to God that takes place as the evil is driven from our personality.

The feast of Tabernacles is the rest of God, the place where the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit take up Their eternal abode in us. We then become that which man is destined to be—the chariot of God.

The title of this booklet is “Eternal Judgment,” an expression taken from the sixth chapter of the Book of Hebrews. Eternal judgment is typified by the Day of Atonement, the sixth of the seven feasts of the Lord.

The Day of Atonement (Leviticus, Chapter Sixteen) well may be the most important of the seven feasts. On this day two goats were selected. One goat was slain and its blood sprinkled on and before the Mercy Seat. The sins of Israel were confessed and symbolically laid on the living goat. The living goat was then led away into the wilderness.

Can you see here the two aspects of salvation? The guilt was removed by the blood of the slain goat. The presence and power of sin were removed by laying them on the living goat and sending the goat away into the wilderness, never to return to the camp.

In these two goats we see the clearest of the Old Testament portrayals of eternal judgment—deliverance from the guilt and presence of sin.

God judges and removes from our personality all that is unrighteous, all that is unholy, and all that is disobedient and self-seeking. This is an eternal judgment.

of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:2)

Because our sins have been forgiven, the old adamic nature is on the cross with Christ, and the new born-again nature has been raised to the right hand of God, we now are to proceed with the work of removing the bondages of sin from the old nature, including our body, soul, and spirit.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (II Corinthians 7:1)
But we are not of those who draw back to perdition [destruction], but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:39)

The raising of Lazarus from the dead is a picture of the Blowing of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.

Lazarus had been dead four days. We have come through the first four feasts of the Lord while still carrying around a sinful personality in which death is dwelling in addition to our new eternal life.

So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. (John 11:17)

The Lord was now ready for the fifth day, the Blowing of Trumpets. The voice of Jesus raised the dead body of Lazarus, just as Jesus now is standing before His people and calling up their sinful personality to face eternal judgment.

The time has come for judgment to begin in the house of God. If we do not face it now we will in the Day of the White Throne Judgment—Christian or not!

Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43)

Lazarus hobbled forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes.

And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” (John 11:44)

When we hear the Lord’s voice today we begin to realize we are bound hand and foot with the graveclothes of sin and death. It is time for the sin to be judged and removed from us.

There are three areas of sin in our personality that must be dealt with: our love for the world, the passions, lusts, hatreds, and so forth that reside in our flesh, and—worst of all—our pride and self-will. The power of the Lord is able to save us from all three areas of sin, and the work is to begin now.

We cannot enter the feast of Tabernacles, the rest of God, until the enemies of the Lord have been put under His feet.

No doubt all Christians realize that sooner or later God must free us from our sinful nature. The new Jerusalem is not holy by imputation, by ascribed righteousness. It is not referred to as the holy city because Christ is holy while all His people continue in lust and violence. It is the holy city because every one of its inhabitants is holy and lives in a holy manner.

The cleansing of the royal priesthood is beginning now. If you are a Christian the Lord has come to assist you in putting to death the sins you practice. This will not happen instantaneously but it shall take place and it is an eternal judgment.

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, (Isaiah 4:4)
I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; and each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’” (Zechariah 13:9)

The cleansing of the priesthood is the baptism with fire of which John the Baptist spoke. We must be baptized both with the Holy Spirit and with the fire of Divine judgment before we are eligible and competent to rule with Christ.

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
“His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:11,12)

The Judgment Seat of Christ began in the first century.

The Judgment Seat of Christ is in session today. You and I are being made manifest before the Judge today. We will not have to answer at a later Judgment Seat for the sins we confess and renounce today. After God has forgiven them and cleansed our personality they are ready for final eradication at the coming of the Lord. If after having confessed our sins and have turned away from them we then go back into sin there may prove to be no further opportunity to repent, just as would be true if we were admitted to the new world of righteousness and then turned and rebelled against God.

We are drawing near to the day when the awful edict will be given: “Let the filthy remain filthy; let the holy remain holy.”

It is time to put an end to sin and to bring in everlasting righteousness.

“But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. (Deuteronomy 7:23)

The members of the Body of Christ are God’s judges. As soon as they pronounce judgment against sin the angels of God will execute the sentence against the forces of evil. There are two armies, the army of judges and the army of angels. It will require the action of both armies to remove Satan from the thrones in the heavens.

We are so accustomed to being sorry for something we have done, and then two weeks later doing it again, and then three weeks later doing it again, that it is difficult for us to picture eternal deliverance. Yet eternal deliverance is taking place as Christians confess and renounce their sins. The Lord is appearing to us without sin for salvation, for deliverance from the power of sin. It had to happen sometime and the Scriptures point toward the day in which we are living.

who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (I Peter 1:5)

Our sinful body has been shut up, like Lazarus in the tomb, for “four days.” Now the old nature is being called forth and slain by the sword of the Spirit of God.

Then Joshua said, “Open the mouth of the cave, and bring out those five kings to me from the cave.”
And they did so, and brought out those five kings to him from the cave: the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.
So it was, when they brought out those kings to Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the captains of the men of war who went with him, “Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings.” And they drew near and put their feet on their necks. (Joshua 10:22-24)

The sin is to be cast out of the warlike remnant of saints, then out of the remainder of the Church, then from every member of the saved nations until sin is gone entirely from the creation of God, except for the outer darkness, the Lake of Fire, and wherever else the wicked may be confined.

I am ready for all sin to be destroyed and its memory to be removed from the creation. Are you? Then rejoice because the Day of Atonement, the Day of Reconciliation to God, has commenced.

The end of the sin of worldliness.
The end of the sins of the flesh.
The end of the sin of self-will.

God delivers us from the sin of worldliness, from love for the world, from trust in the world, as we present our body a living sacrifice. This is the temptation of turning the stone into bread. Will we continue to look to the world for security and survival? Will we put our trust in things? Or will we live by every word that comes from the mouth of God?

God delivers us from the immorality of Satan that dwells in our flesh as we confess our sins and vigorously renounce them, thus passing judgment on Satan. As we confess our sins and renounce them God is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Here is the sin of idolatry, of worshiping Satan. Do we want the pleasures found in the kingdoms of the world? Are we willing to destroy body, soul, and spirit by permitting demons to express their vile, hideous slobberings in us? If we could see the drooling demons of lust, the grotesque demons of hatred, the reptilian demons of gossip and slander, the bloated demons of drunkenness, the leering monsters behind drug addiction, we would ask God to deliver us.

Do you know that when you use profanity an unclean spirit is in your tongue? Your mouth is set on fire by Hell.

Worship God and look to Him alone for joy. In His Presence is fullness of joy and pleasure for eternity. You do not have to worship Satan in order to find joy.

You have to make the choice to justify Satan or condemn him. As long as you agree to behave in an immoral fashion you are justifying Satan. In this case, at the Judgment Seat of the future you will have a considerable part of your personality burned away that your spirit may be saved or you will be cast into the Lake of Fire. No person who continues in the sins of the flesh will be permitted to inherit the Kingdom of God whether or not he or she names the name of Christ.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Ephesians 5:5)

The Christian teachers of today are claiming these two passages do not apply to Christians, or if they do they do not mean what they say.

If such is the case, none of the New Testament applies to Christians and the text does not mean what it states. Let us throw the Bible away and continue in our delusions.

The Scripture is being attacked today. We have heard reasons advanced why the commandments of the Gospels do not apply to Christians, why the Book of Galatians does not apply to Jewish Christians, why the Book of Hebrews does not apply to Gentile Christians, and now some are claiming we are not supposed to read the Book of Revelation because no one understands it. All of this is aimed at convincing Christian people we have not been commanded to live righteously.

Would anyone like to remove First John from the Bible?

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. (I John 3:7)

We are to name our sin clearly, what it is we are doing. Then we are to renounce it with all the power we have. God will forgive us and cleanse us. In the future we shall find that its power has been weakened enough for us to resist it successfully. As time goes on the sin that has been confessed and renounced will grow increasingly weak until it does not cause us much of a problem.

Some sins that are a major part of our personality have to be contended with throughout our discipleship. But God always gives the victory. It is an eternal judgment. It never is God’s will that His child walk in known sin.

Do you want the sin to go? Then tell it to go clearly and forcefully. Dogs, horses, and demons respond well to clear, forceful directions. The power to set us free is available now. Put it to the test and see for yourself.

Remember, you must assign your old nature to the cross. And you must be living as a Christian, praying, reading your Bible, meeting with the fervent saints, giving, serving, and doing all else that the Scriptures command. If you are not obeying the Scripture you will not be able to gain eternal deliverance. The demons will be back to see if their house is available.

One reason Christians do not gain moral victory is that this is not what they truly want. They ask for prayer and deliverance but in their heart of hearts they are afraid of change. They are double-minded. If this is the case with you, ask a strong saint to pray for you to gain the desire for deliverance. If you remain double-minded you never will be delivered.

This that we are teaching is the doctrine of eternal judgment and it follows the resurrection of the dead. The death, resurrection, and ascension we experience when we sincerely come to the Lord Jesus are spiritual but genuine experiences. God is willing to count us crucified with Christ and alive in Christ if this is what we desire. Then we can move forward with the program of judgment and deliverance.

It may be noticed that during the first resurrection from the dead (Revelation 20:4-6) no books are opened. This is because the saints who attain to the first resurrection, the members of the royal priesthood, already have been judged. It remains only for Christ to remove the last vestiges of worldliness, immorality, and self-will from them and to clothe them with the robe of righteousness that they have kept clean by continued washing in the blood of the Lamb, according to the procedure we have just described.

Those who attain to the first resurrection, the resurrection that will take place when the Lord appears, at the beginning of the thousand-year Kingdom Age, cannot be harmed by the Lake of Fire. The fire has no authority over them.

Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power [authority], but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)

No more endless striving against sin! Now it is time to put sin to death by the Spirit of God, to put our foot on the neck of God’s enemies that have buffeted us all these years.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)

We are not stating we never will be tempted again or that we will not have to guard our body carefully, beating it down continually so after we have preached to others we do not disqualify ourselves. This struggle shall continue until we die or until the Lord returns. In the world we shall have tribulation.

But instead of endlessly being sorry for the same old sins repeated again and again we now are going somewhere. We are on a path that leads to the moral image of Christ and to untroubled rest in the Person and will of the Father.

We haven’t as yet described the third area of sin—that of self-will. Self-will is by far the hardest area in our personality to deal with. Self-will cannot be cast out, as in the case of the sins of the flesh. Self-will has to be burned out by suffering.

Even the Lord Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered.

We overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony concerning good and evil, and by loving not our life to the death.

God allows Satan to put us in prison. It is there we gain the crown of life—authority and power to govern by the Life of God.

Remaining in the prison of God is very difficult. Every nerve in our body screams for release. It is the temptation of the pinnacle. Will we put God to the test by jumping off “in faith”?

How many of God’s people of today are willing to remain where God has placed them, day after day doing what they do not care to do; month after month having their fervent desires denied them.

True ministry comes only from the cross of deferred desire. Until we die we cannot give the resurrection life of God to other people.

The pillars of Hell cannot be torn down until the Christian bows in death to self-will.

The eternal judgment of our sin includes the destruction of worldliness from our personality; the destruction of sin from our personality; and the destruction of self-will from our personality. “I am the almighty God. Walk before Me and be perfect. And now give Isaac back to Me.”

Will we do it? Our judgment is not complete, fruitfulness and dominion will not be ours, until Isaac is offered on the altar of God.

Satan cannot be cast from the heavens until some of the believers overcome him by permitting the Lord God to judge them totally in the three areas of personality we have mentioned. There are such believers. They are submitting to God. They are attaining to the first resurrection from the dead.

You can be one of these who overcome the adversary. Why don’t you look to the Lord right now and tell Him of your desire to be counted among the Gideon’s soldiers of the last days.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:10,11)

God forms Christ in us.

My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)

We have just described the doctrine of eternal judgment. This is the negative side of redemption. The positive side is the forming of Christ in us.

Christ is the House of God and the only House of God. Before the Father and the Son can make Their eternal abode in us in fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, Christ must be formed in us; for God will dwell only in Christ.

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14)

We are of no use to God in His war against His enemies until we are sons of God, led of the Spirit to judge between good and evil, and determined through Christ to embrace the good and hurl the evil from us.

Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, then I will bring you back; you shall stand before Me; if you take out the precious from the vile [worthless], you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them. (Jeremiah 15:19)

As the evil is cast from us Christ must be being formed in its stead. This will take place if we are living as a Christian, if we are staying in the place where the Lord can feed us with His body and blood. Permanent deliverance cannot take place until we are living as a dedicated disciple of the Lord.

As evil is removed and Christ grows in us we increasingly are able to distinguish between good and evil. This is the mark of maturity. It is not possible we can be fed the meat of the Word of God until we grow in the ability to choose between good and evil.

Everything that takes place in the Divine plan of redemption is against the backdrop of the original rebellion of angels. God’s response to the original rebellion is shaping what is happening in the world. It is for this reason the Bible is a book of war, continually referring to enemies and warfare.

Until we begin to grow in the ability to choose good and reject evil we are of little or no use to God. If every person on earth were forgiven his or her sins it would not solve God’s problems. It only is when a believer begins to grow in Christ that there comes a solution to the problem.

Present-day ministry concentrates on getting great numbers of people to “make a decision for Christ.” Not only is this an unscriptural expression it has an unscriptural implication. It implies that God wants us all to come up to Paradise to live forever in mansions. If we may say so, this is a humanistic emphasis. It does not look to God’s needs and desires, only to man’s needs and desires.

It is time for God’s prophets of today to begin to let the churches know about God’s needs and God’s desires. There are multitudes of people in the world who have been taught the basics of the Christian message. How many of them are genuine disciples of the Lord? How many are offering their body a living sacrifice to God? How many are obeying the Father sternly in all He says? Eighty percent? Sixty percent? Forty percent? Judging from what we have seen, probably one percent.

We have come to the conclusion that today’s Christian message is not the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. It is a religious philosophy. Preachers and teachers are attempting to make converts to their religious ideas. They define faith as belief in their ideas rather than what faith actually is—our daily trust in the faithfulness of the living God. This is why their converts do not become cross-carrying disciples.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is not a religious philosophy. It is God in Christ. God in Christ is ready to come to each person and set him or her free from sin. After God comes to us the purpose of our life becomes that of working out our deliverance from sin with fear and trembling.

If all the Christians in the world would turn away from sin, take up their cross, and follow the Lord Jesus, the course of history would be changed. But this is not going to happen. More and more people will “have their sins forgiven and be on their way Heaven,” but the roles and tasks of the Kingdom will find very few indeed who can fill them.

This will continue to be true unless Christian leaders everywhere begin to teach the people of the plan of God that operates after we have been saved and filled with the Spirit of God. It is time to call the churches to repentance before God; for the people to turn away from worldliness, lust, and self-will, and to approach God for the power to put sin to death.

Until Christ is formed in us we will keep being led astray by doctrines that come short of the Glory of God. Also, we are of little use in God’s war against Satan.

The Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit take up Their eternal residence in our transformed personality.

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23)

The verse above announces the spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles. This is the Kingdom of God—the coming of the Father and the Son to us and finding Their eternal rest in us. The blood of the Lamb provides the authority for the establishing of the Kingdom. The Holy Spirit gives us the wisdom and power to enter the Kingdom. The eternal judgment of sin and the creating of Christ in us prepare the way. The end result is the coming of the Father and the Son to fill the temple.

God will dwell only in Christ. As Christ is formed in us it is as a great Light penetrating deeper and deeper into the caverns of our personality. As the light descends it exposes the creatures hiding in the labyrinth. The worldliness is dealt with and removed. The bats and creeping things, the lust, murder, drunkenness are seen clearly and driven out by the Spirit of God.

Finally that great leviathan, King Self, is forced from his dark hiding places. The sword of the Spirit plunges into his heart and the filth that pours forth is a raging torrent, awesome to behold.

Leviathan is cunning and will play dead, only to arise when the Light has passed on. The sword must be driven into his heart again, again, again. His head and claws must be chopped off. Even after all of this he still will writhe fiercely like a snake with its head cut off. This is King Self, the archenemy of God and His Christ.

The throne that has been created in every human being is occupied by King Self. Satan and King Self are close friends. They get along very well until Satan is certain that King Self is forever in his clutches. Then Satan turns on the individual and mocks him as he descends shrieking into the blue flames of the Lake of Fire.

A large part of our discipleship consists of God removing King Self from the throne of our personality and installing Himself and His Christ thereon.

When God and His Christ are clearly and eternally established on the throne of our personality, then we are allowed back to sit with them on the throne.

“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. (Revelation 3:21)

God raises our physical body from the dead and then clothes our resurrected flesh and bones with the white robe of righteousness that has been formed as we have obeyed the Holy Spirit throughout our discipleship.

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice
“and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:28,29)
For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (II Corinthians 5:1)

The mortal remains of every person who has lived on the earth will one day hear the voice of Christ, come forth, and stand before God to await his or her destiny.

There will be two resurrections, the first at the beginning of the thousand-year Kingdom Age; the second at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

The first resurrection is for the royal priesthood. This resurrection must be attained by living the victorious Christian life. Every individual who is not raised during the first resurrection, that which will take place at the appearing of the Lord from Heaven, will be raised in the second resurrection.

At the second resurrection the books of record will be opened and the newly resurrected people will be judged according to their works. Those who have behaved righteously will be brought forward to eternal life in the new heaven and earth reign of King Jesus. Those who have practiced evil will be sentenced appropriately. Those whose names do not appear in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

The first resurrection is well worth the effort required to attain to it. Those who are raised at the sounding of the trumpet of the Lord will come forth. At some point before or after the reviving of their mortal remains, their flesh and bones will be clothed with the robe of righteousness that has been formed as they have overcome the world, sin, and self-will.

Every individual will be clothed in his or her own works. We shall reap precisely what we have sown.

This is salvation. This is the removing of the presence of sin from our personality. We have been faithful in putting to death the deeds of our body. Now the Lord has rewarded us by finally removing the very presence of sin from us so we no longer have to keep controlling its urges. Remember, the final removal of sin will not be given to those who have made little or no attempt to overcome sin. The final removal of sin will come to those who are patiently bearing the cross behind Christ. The remainder of those who are saved will be dealt with by Divine fire.

We have come to believe that those who are residing in Paradise at the time of the return of the Lord will be given their new body, their new robe, before they descend with the Lord.

Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed. (Revelation 6:11)

When they return with the Lord their spirits, now clothed with the body from Heaven, will take up their mortal remains just as the Lord Jesus laid down and then brought forth again His mortal body.

The living saints will experience physical death while they are standing on their feet and immediately will be revived by being clothed with their body from Heaven. Immortality will swallow up mortality.

As we have said, the last vestiges of worldliness, lust, and self-will shall be removed from those who have faithfully overcome sin by the Spirit of the Lord. The new body will be driven by an intense desire for righteousness just as the old body was driven by an intense desire for sin. For those who love the Lord this is all the reward they ever could desire.

But the new body is only the beginning. Having overcome all the darkness and death that has come against them, the saints now are sentenced to be always with the Lord for eternity.

This is the royal priesthood. The Lake of Fire has no authority over them because there is no sin in them. They are as terrible as an army with banners. They will hurtle downward on the white war stallions, following the Commander in Chief whose robe has been dipped in blood. Their mission is to drive sin from the creation of God, and this they shall do.

Their Leader is Faithful and True. His followers are called, chosen, and faithful. They have revealed on the earth that they will not compromise with sin. They are dead-living people riding each in his rank, just as they did during their time of testing on the earth.

This is Joel’s army. This is the revealing of the sons of God. The savage calvary charge of Armageddon marks the end of sin in the creation. Although a thousand years must pass before the sons of God are fully prepared to see the Face of their Father, the doom of all sin and sinners already has been established for eternity. The everlasting Kingdom of righteousness is here.

God assigns us to the various roles and tasks we now are eligible and competent to perform.

and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:6)

God is creating a Kingdom. The Kingdom is in Heaven now but soon is to come to the earth.

In order for a kingdom to function there must be a king and then a governing nobility. An army must be trained. Judges must be carefully educated and disciplined. In addition there are numerous other roles and tasks that work together to form the kingdom.

The King is Jesus. He has come to earth and has been perfected in obedience.

Now various ranks of the nobility are being prepared. After this there will be lesser roles to fill.

The point is, it is not enough to forgive people as a prerequisite for their place in the Kingdom. They also must pass the tests that have to do with their assignment. Passing the tests is termed “overcoming.”

Each believer has a mark set before him or her. If he is to be set in his place in the Kingdom he must attain to the mark, just as is true of any position of responsibility on the earth.

Salvation is not eternal residence in Heaven. Salvation is deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, and then success in cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He trains us for our role in the Kingdom.

If we hope to be in the first resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of the royal priesthood, we must, as Paul, attain to this “out-resurrection” by a life given completely to knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection [Greek: out-resurrection] from the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11)
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power [authority], but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)

Let us think now about some of the roles that must be filled in order for the Kingdom of God to operate properly. Participation in these roles is impossible until we first have been “saved,” meaning we have been delivered from the guilt and power of sin.

A bride for the Lamb (Revelation 21:9).
A living temple for God (Ephesians 2:22).
A member of the Body of Christ, the Servant of the Lord (Isaiah 42:1; I Corinthians 12:12).
A vehicle for the end-time revival (Isaiah 60:1,2).
People who can restore Paradise on the earth (Romans 8:21).
A royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9).
Witnesses of God (Isaiah 43:10).
Sons of God (Revelation 21:7).
Brothers of Christ (Romans 8:29).
Overcomers of the accuser (Revelation 12:11).
Governors for the saved nations (Revelation 2:26,27).
Judges of men and angels (I Corinthians 6:2,3).
A wall of defense around the Glory of God (Revelation 21:14).
The revelation of Himself—God in Christ in the saints (Revelation 3:12).
There will be nations of saved people who will serve as an inheritance for the Lamb and His Wife (Revelation 21:24).

They Overcame Him

The events described in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation are among the most significant to be found in the Scriptures.

Here we see the Christian Church, the woman clothed with Christ, the creation under her feet, and crowned with the heroes of faith of all ages.

She is in travail. The Scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament, tell us that in the last days Zion will travail until Christ is brought forth in the Church.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”
Therefore He shall give them [Jews] up, until the time that she who is in labor [Church] has given birth [to Christ in them]; then the remnant of His brethren [sons of God] shall return to the children of Israel. (Micah 5:2,3)
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)

Satan is not overly concerned with the Church and its numerous liturgies. But Satan is terrified at the thought that the Church will cease its own works and enter the travail that will bring forth Christ.

Christ is the King, the Judge, the Ruler of the nations. The male Son is being born now as a warlike remnant of saints cease from their own works and turn their attention to what the Lord God is doing.

Satan has perfect wisdom, power in the world, and kingly authority. As wicked as he is, he is a great and majestic monarch. When we underestimate his ability to deceive we place ourselves in danger. Satan has had access to the heavens for a period of time incomprehensible to us. To the present hour he is able to approach God and accuse the saints.

Michael and his legions remain helpless. They cannot move until the Father gives the Word. The Father will not give the Word until the Son is born in the Church.

And then it happens! The Son is brought forth and is caught up to the throne of God.

Immediately the Father authorizes Michael to cast Satan from the heaven to the earth.

The casting of Satan from the heaven is of a significance we cannot grasp. The blood of Calvary made this possible.

Something else made it possible. There were some saints who overcame the accuser, and their faithfulness to God resulted in the removal of sin from the heaven.

The problem of the creation is not primarily that there is sin in the earth. The problem is that there is sin in the heaven. It is given to the saints, God’s judges, to bind and loose sin in the heaven.

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:9)

How did the saints overcome him?

By the legal authority resident in the blood of the Lamb.
By ensuring that every aspect of their thinking, speech, and actions was in line with the Word of God; by bearing a true testimony in their thoughts, words, and actions of the Person, ways, will, and eternal purpose of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
By putting all their treasures in Heaven, laying down their life for the Gospel’s sake.

They overcame him! The wrestling match is over. Look at the result:

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. (Revelation 12:10)

This is the salvation that has been promised to the saints. Satan is cast down and can accuse them no longer. The heavens have been loosed and it is the saints, working with Christ, who have brought to an end the many eons of the black night of sin and rebellion against the Father.

Strength has come. What strength? The strength to live in a righteous, holy, obedient manner. Righteousness is a matter of strength. The good that we would do we do not do because there is wicked strength acting against us. But Christ always is stronger if we will look to Him.

The Kingdom of God comes as a result of the saints overcoming the accuser. The Kingdom of God is first righteousness, then peace and joy—all in the Holy Spirit.

The authority of God’s Christ has been established for eternity. It is an eternal judgment on Satan and all of his works.

“Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” (Revelation 12:12)

Hurling Satan down from the heaven brings tremendous joy to all who dwell in the heavens.

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.”
And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
“Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17-20)

The Lord Jesus was seeing in vision that which is described in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation.

The fall of Satan from the heaven is the bringing of Christ’s enemies under His feet, that is, under the feet of His Bride. She is terrible as an army with banners.

And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. (Romans 16:20)

The Seed of the woman has crushed the head of the serpent.

This is the new covenant—the removal of the guilt, power, and presence of sin.

Let each one of us overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony that God is true, and by loving not our life to the death. Think of the blessing we will bring to God, to Jesus, to those who dwell in the heavens. Although the immediate result will be to bring an enraged dragon into the earth, at the Lord’s return one angel will imprison Satan in the bottomless pit.

Now there will be justice, peace, and Divine blessing for the saved nations of the earth. But the wicked will be ground to powder by the saints of the Lord.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” says the LORD of hosts, “that will leave them neither root nor branch.
But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.
You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 4:1-3)

You can be part of the army of the Lord if this is what you truly desire. But you will have to be proven faithful if you wish to ride with the Lord Jesus on that Day.

Conclusion

The Christian teaching of today presents salvation as eternal residence in a mansion in Heaven. We are saved when we assent to the fact that we are a sinner, that we cannot save ourselves, and that Christ died for our sins so we can receive His righteousness. While this is true it is not the Divine salvation, it merely is adherence to a religious philosophy until it is working in our personality and behavior.

Such a theological salvation may appear to solve man’s problem but it certainly is not directed toward solving God’s problem. God’s problem is not solved until He has mature sons who are in the image of Christ and in untroubled rest in God’s Person and will. Then God has people whom He can assign to the various roles and tasks we have mentioned previously.

It is one thing to be saved from wrath. It is another matter to rule with Christ over all the works of God’s hands.

There is a spiritual blindness over the minds of God’s people in America—perhaps over the whole family of God in every nation. This is especially true of individuals who are fifty years of age or older. They have been taught they are going to Heaven by grace. It appears that many if not most of the older generation of believers are not going to change their minds no matter what the Scriptures declare. They are not hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Our hope is in the younger generation, that they will come to understand the new covenant. We need a righteous, warlike remnant who will bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to every nation under Heaven, not telling the Gentiles that God is going to take them to Heaven by grace but that they are required to keep the commandments given to us by Christ. After all, this is the Great Commission.

“teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:20)

The Great Commission is not being fulfilled today. We are informing people that God has provided grace as an alternative to keeping His commandments. We are converting them to our religious philosophy just as the Hindus and Muslims do. The truth is, grace is Divine Life in motion to enable us to keep God’s commandments. We are saved by grace so we may work the righteous works of God. This is the fruit for which the heavenly Farmer is waiting.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

Today we are faced with a doctrinal wilderness overgrown with brambles, decaying logs, vines, poisonous plants. There is no path.

Some with a compass (the Scriptures) in one hand and a machete (the sword of the Spirit; the Word of God) in the other are hacking their way through the thorns and branches. After them will come good and faithful people who will make the trail wider.

More will follow until the ground underfoot is a recognizable dirt path. Later the path will be asphalted over. Finally the surveyors will appear and a ten-lane highway will be constructed.

Here come the joyous multitudes, throng after throng, making their way to Zion. They are singing songs of rejoicing, their faces shining and growing ever more radiant as they begin the last approach to the city of God.

It is the highway of holiness.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage [to God].
As they pass through the Valley of Baca [weeping], they make it a spring [of life]; the rain also covers it with pools. (Psalms 84:5,6)
A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. (Isaiah 35:8)

In our local assembly we are praying that God will lift the blinders from the eyes of all of us so that righteousness and praise will spring forth. We are praying also that God will pour out His Holy Spirit on us so that Jesus Christ will be exalted as never before. Then the light of righteous works will testify to every nation of the Glory of God and of the soon coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.

For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.
The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD will name. (Isaiah 62:1,2)

Will you join with us in our prayer?

(“Eternal Judgment”, 3343-1)