The destiny of a person, whether the Kingdom of God or the Lake of Fire, has to do with his body. We shall receive the things done in our body. Because all of us behave differently while we are in our mortal bodies, our resurrected bodies will be diverse in glory (as "one star differeth from another star in glory").

Every human being who has lived on the earth will return to his body and will stand before God in his body. All who are in the graves will hear Christ's voice and will come forth. Every person will receive the things done in his body.

If he has served God with all his heart, having turned many to righteousness, he will shine as a star. He will be like Jesus, being able to see Jesus as He is. Such extreme privileges and glory are impossible to comprehend.

We are speaking here of those who attain the highest thrones of the universe, being gigantic manifestations of glory far beyond our mind's ability to consider or imagine. These conquering personalities, being filled with God and Christ, still will be in the bodies born of their mother. But because they have sown their bodies to the death of the cross their bodies will be raised in such a state of Divine Fire that it will not be possible to behold them except as they shield their extraordinary radiance from unprepared eyes.

These are the victorious saints, the pillars of the Temple of God.

After this rank has been seated, others will be judged with exceeding care. Each of the elect will be rewarded in his body with the consequences of his behavior while in his mortal body. He will be judged as to the extent he has presented his body a living sacrifice to God.

The good and faithful servants will enter the joy of their Lord. Those who knew the Lord's will but did not do it will be punished. The lazy servants will be cast into outer darkness. The faithful will be given the fruits of their faithfulness. The unfaithful will be given the fruits of their unfaithfulness.

Of all the truths of God that must be brought to the attention of the churches in the closing days of the twentieth century, the most important is that of the relationship between our behavior as believers and the rewards or punishments we shall receive in the Day of Christ.

There is no greater deception operating among fundamentalists than the concept that because we have spoken our assent to the facts of the atonement we shall be received joyfully into the Presence of the Lord Jesus. This is error and it has destroyed the moral and spiritual testimony of the churches.

Perhaps it will require the entire thousand-year Kingdom Age to accomplish the judgment of the elect—placing each who has been found worthy into his role in the new Jerusalem. Apparently the new Jerusalem will be brought to perfection during the thousand-year Kingdom Age, for the city does not appear in its finished form until the thousand years have been completed.

To be continued.