The current belief is that at some point in the future every Gentile Christian, having attained union with Christ or not, will be carried up to Heaven. God the Father will lead the Lamb and His Bride through the Anglican wedding ceremony. Christ will say, "I do." The Bride will answer, "I do." The Father will pronounce them husband and wife. The angels will cheer, and then all will go to participate in the festivities.

It did not happen that way with Adam and Eve. It did not happen that way with Isaac and Rebekah. It will not happen that way with the Wife of the Lamb.

Eve was married to Adam as she came into existence.

The marriage of Rebekah began when she decided to leave her father's house and journey to a strange land, there to become the bone and flesh of a man she had never seen.

Our marriage to the Lamb begins when we decide to leave all that is familiar to us and go to a place where we never have been, there to become the "flesh and bone" of a Man we have never seen, being married to Him as we come into existence in the new creation.

Multitudes (perhaps the majority) of Christians have never decided to leave what is familiar; neither are they married to Christ and coming into existence in the new creation. They picture Christ as being some kind of Santa Claus, or a spiritual principle they can learn to manipulate in order to obtain what they desire while they retain their original, adamic personality.

Ignorance of what it means to be married to the Lamb is becoming dangerous in our day. The Lord's people are being taught concerning the availability of spiritual power. The gifts of the Spirit are being sought. The believers are encouraged to bind and to loose in Jesus' name. The Lord Jesus encouraged us that if we would but speak the word of faith, mountains would be moved. Attempts are being made to practice this.

The current spiritual efforts are based on the Scriptures. But spiritual efforts, even in the name of Jesus, apart from union with Christ constitute the False Prophet.

The central commandment is, "Abide in me."

Nothing else is as important as the marriage of the Lamb. The power and glory of the latter-rain revival, the moving of God among the nations, the restoration of all the gifts of the Spirit, the working of powerful miracles in the name of Jesus, the creation of churches of multiplied thousands of people—all this is insignificant compared with the importance of the fact that God's firstborn Son is acquiring a complement, someone to complete Him, someone to relieve His loneliness. It is not good for a man to be alone. (Genesis 2:18)

Multitudes follow Christ for the loaves and the fish. A smaller number hear because the miracles draw them to the Presence of God.

But when Christ begins to speak of union, the people who have followed Him to this point will depart by the thousands.

From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. (John 6:66)

To be continued.