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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Working Out Our Salvation, #3
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. (II Peter 3:11,12—NIV)
The three contemporary doctrines we discussed previously are linked together as follows—we are assured of going to Heaven after we die because we have made a proper confession concerning Christ. Our goal is to live forever in Paradise, and the "rapture" accomplishes this before we have suffered from Antichrist and the great tribulation.
In actuality, true faith in the Lord Jesus cannot exist apart from the keeping of the commandments found in the New Testament, the commandments given by the Lord through His Apostles. Righteous works are the very life of faith.
The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (I John 2:4—NIV)
Current Christian teaching is more closely related to Gnosticism than it is to Christianity. Gnosticism presents a set of special secrets, the knowledge of which results in salvation. Modern evangelical doctrine advocates a set of beliefs to which if one subscribes he or she is saved. There is no code of required conduct.
The purpose of the new covenant is to make an eternal end of the practice of sin. The bulk of the New Testament writings have to do with commandments which we are to keep, as the Spirit of God assists us, until Christ is formed in us and we behave righteously by nature.
The truth is:
To be saved is to be delivered from wrath in the Day of the Lord.
The first resurrection, the historical event that will take place when the Lord returns, includes a gathering together of the saints of all ages and their being caught up to meet the Lord in the air. They then will return with Him to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth. The first resurrection from the dead will not take place until the end of the present age, until the great and dreadful Day of the Lord.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: (Matthew 24:29)
The gathering together of God's elect and their ascension to meet the Lord in the air will occur "immediately after the tribulation of those days," that is, immediately after the great tribulation, at the end of the present age.
The fundamental teaching of the Day of Wrath has been destroyed by the three unscriptural doctrines we have mentioned previously. If salvation is preached against the backdrop of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, and if it is our healthy fear of the Day of Wrath that motivates us to live a godly life, then a doctrine that removes the scriptural vision of the Day of the Lord, the Day of Wrath, will produce immature, immoral believers. This is exactly what has taken place.
To be continued.