Also, we must consider Paul's purpose in writing I Thessalonians 4:13-5:4. The early apostles preached the coming of the Kingdom of God—the return of Christ to the earth to do away with sin and death and to bring in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit of God.

The believers in Thessalonica were concerned that their deceased loved ones might not partake of the glorious release and restoration.

Therefore Paul assured them that when Jesus returns, all true saints will enter the Kingdom together. Even those patriarchs and prophets of old (who without us cannot be made perfect) will enter the Kingdom of God at the time of the return of the Lord Jesus to the earth.

If the goal of salvation were to go to Heaven, Paul's response would have been: "Do not worry. Your deceased loved ones, those who are ‘asleep,' are now with Jesus and have their reward. When you fall asleep you too will go to be with them in glory. All will be reunited around the throne of the Lamb."

That is how we would answer today because we are in error concerning the nature of the Kingdom of God.

Paul comforted them with the fact that should Christ return in their lifetime He would bring the deceased with Him. All who are part of Christ would then be gathered together in the resurrection and caught up to meet the Lord in the air —at the level of the clouds just above the earth. The royal priesthood will occupy the thrones in the air that presently are the domain of the fallen lords of the heavens. The thrones in the air govern the spiritual environment of the earth.

The coming of the Kingdom of God is different from our tradition of going to Heaven. Therefore, to place our tradition of the spirit Paradise on a passage dealing with the reuniting of the saints in the Day of Resurrection, and their catching up to meet the Commander in Chief in the air immediately above the earth, is to confuse the "blessed hope" of the Christian Church.

The lack of a clear vision of the hope of the Gospel of Christ, which is the resurrection to eternal life (John 3:16), has produced chaos in the Christian churches. The saints are not pressing toward maturity in Christ, toward the rest of God, because they have been taught to put their trust in a secret translation to Paradise where they will not be held accountable for their conduct on the earth.

If the current tradition were correct, Paul would have spoken of our reconciliation to our loved ones when we die, not when Christ returns and our bodies are raised from the dead.

There is no need for a resurrection in order for us to go to Paradise to live forever.

The purpose of receiving back our bodies is that we may return from Heaven with Jesus and live once again on the earth. In the Scriptures, the resurrection has to do with life in our bodies, not with life in the realm of spirits (I Corinthians 15:22,23).

To be continued.