When the Lord comes, our inward nature will return with Him. We will gather up our flesh and bones from wherever they were interred. Then our house from Heaven, that which has been formed in Heaven as we have lived on earth as being crucified with Christ and risen with Christ, will cover our resurrected flesh and bones. This is the first resurrection from the dead.

When this is true, when our inward nature has been reconciled to God in all its ways, when the Father and the Son are dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit, when our body has been raised from the dead and clothed with our house from Heaven, we then will be able to descend from Heaven through the new sky and be established on the new earth. We then will be able, because we have become the Throne of God and of the Lamb, to bring all the blessings to mankind we have described above.

But before the new heaven and earth reign of Christ there must take place the thousand-year kingdom age. This will commence at the next appearing of our Lord.

Those who have pressed through to the fullness of God will appear to the world with Christ at His next appearing to the world. They will rule the nations on earth, the nations remaining after the armies of Antichrist have been destroyed, with the rod of iron of the Spirit of God. They will bring peace and justice to mankind.

What then is the purpose of the thousand-year Kingdom Age?

I will give you my point of view.

First of all, it will bring peace and justice to a world torn by war and the self-serving of the various governments. It will be a time of safety for children. The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill the earth—this present earth.

Second, the main purpose probably is the preparing of the whole Church of Jesus Christ for its role as the new Jerusalem—the dwelling place of God that will come down through the new sky and settle in place on a high mountain of the new earth.

None of us, from the most spiritual to the least spiritual, is anywhere near being ready for the colossal Glory of God that is to be revealed when the new Jerusalem descends through the new sky. Such Divine Glory is simply incomprehensible to us at the present time. The thousand-year period will be necessary to help us make the transition from the gross creatures that we are to sons of God who are destined to shine as the stars forever.

As we said, a firstfruits of the Church will be ready, at the worldwide appearing of the Lord, to descend with Him and help in the task of installing the Kingdom of God on the earth. But most of God's people are not ready to serve as the eternal Tabernacle of God. They have not come to the unity of the faith. They have not come to the knowledge of the Son of God. They have not grown to maturity as measured by the fullness of the stature of Christ.

To be continued.