After the thousand-year Kingdom Age has been concluded the judgment of mankind will take place. Those persons whose names are not found written in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

The Lake of Fire is no mere symbol of God's anger. It is a real lake—the dreadful place of eternal torment and separation from the Presence of God. The Lake of Fire is reserved for the devil and his angels and for those people who reject the lordship of Christ.

In Christ is salvation in the Day of God's wrath. We desire to be saved from such an awful fate. Let us therefore not neglect the Divine salvation. Let us embrace it and preach and teach it. It is God's gift freely given, the sacrifice of God's only begotten Son on our behalf.

The new heaven and earth reign of Christ will be a paradise of peace and joy. It will be the most wonderful dreams and hope of people in solid and enduring form. To be brought forward to that perfect, eternal realm requires accepting Jesus as our Savior and Lord in obedience to the will of God. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."

Each person who receives Christ as Savior and Lord is at once redeemed from the guilt, authority, and death of sin. By death, in this instance, we mean separation from the Presence and acceptance of God.

Every human being was born in sin because of the transgression of Adam and Eve. We all have an inborn tendency toward moral corruption. We sin because it is our nature to do so.

There is no way by which we can redeem ourselves. We do not possess the price to pay God for our past transgressions and we do not have the power to stop sinning. We must have a redeemer.

Christ bore on Himself the sins of the whole world. The judgment of God came upon Christ and He was crucified. In Christ, God brought to an end the first creation. In Christ, God brought judgment on the evil lords of spiritual darkness and destroyed their authority and power.

God "passed over" His redeemed and struck the gods of the world. The Divine redemption was accomplished on Calvary. Man's religious efforts could never accomplish the smallest part of God's work on Calvary. Calvary has to do with God's wrath, God's law, God's righteousness, God's provision, God's redemption. Our part is to accept the atonement by faith.

When we come to Christ, God directs us to be baptized in water. "Go down into the water," God commands, "showing you are willing to die to your first life, to the first creation. Accept My judgment on the source of sin in your life. Take your forgiveness by faith and be believing and thankful. It is My gift to you."

By faith we establish that our "old man," our first personality, is now dead through participation with Christ on the cross of Calvary. We leave our sinful nature in the water, its authority over us having been done away in Christ. We declare in faith that our new inner man, the new life that has been born again in Christ, is now risen with Christ.

To be continued.