Planting the Heavens

For two thousand years Christ has been planting the heavens.

Christ came and shed His blood for the sins of the world, making it possible for whoever chooses to do so to be forgiven his sins and to enter in prayer into the Presence of God in Heaven.

Also, through the various ministries and gifts given by the Holy Spirit, and through fiery trials, the spiritual nature of the members of the Body of Christ is being perfected. The spiritual Zion consists of the spirits of righteous people made perfect. The spirits of the righteous people of the Church of the Firstborn are being made perfect in the Virtue that is in Christ (Hebrews 12:23).

Because of the length of time being devoted to establishing the heavens, Christianity has come to be regarded as a "heavenly" religion. Salvation is viewed as a means of enabling us to enter permanent residence in Heaven when we die.

The other two commissions of Christ (and of us because we are the Body of Christ) are largely ignored. Most of us understand little about laying the foundations of the earth or saying to Zion, "You are my people."

The vision of the Kingdom of God announced by the Hebrew Prophets, the Kingdom preached by John the Baptist, by the Lord Jesus, and by the Apostles of the Lamb, has been lost to the Christian churches. In its place we have an accumulation of fables and traditions that speak of "mansions" in Heaven where we will spend eternity apparently doing nothing. We have changed the Gospel of the redemption of the earth into an escape to the spirit realm, to the realm where sin and rebellion originated.

The blood of Christ is being presented as a "ticket" to Paradise. Physical death has become the redeemer of the typical believer. It is his belief that Christ came to forgive his sins and rebellion, the sins and rebellion that he is convinced will be his portion throughout his stay on the earth. The concept of Christ as a deliverer, particularly as a deliverer from the bondages of sin, has not been established in his thinking.

But when he dies, then he will be sanctified (he thinks). Death will resolve the problem of his sins and rebellion. No matter how he has conducted himself on the earth, when he dies he will go to Heaven where he never can sin again. He will be a mighty king and priest of God, although whom he will rule over and intercede for is not clear. So distorted is the unscriptural nature of today's preaching!

Because of our ignorance the greater part of the Scriptures remains an unusable puzzle to us.

We apply Isaiah's prophecies to the physical Jews, and are wresting to our own destruction Paul's explanation of the grace of God under the new covenant. The interpretation of John 14:2 to mean Jesus is building houses for us in Heaven is a sublime example of the errors that have entered Christian thinking since the first century.

To be continued.