The bulk of mankind suffers in the world, and no doubt most of us will continue to be instructed in the next. There are the few lashes and the many lashes, the outer darkness, Hell, and finally the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. It is the last named that is the second death and the wicked will be cast into it.

What we Christians must come to understand is that the Lord God is interested in righteousness and obedience. We do not accept Christ in order to avoid punishment for our behavior but in order to gain the opportunity to repent and begin to do the things that are pleasing to God. The salvation that is in Christ enables us to be accepted of God by turning away from our former manner of living, by embarking on the program of transformation into righteous behavior.

Sinners always are in death. The righteous always are eligible for eternal life. This is the nature of cause and effect in the spirit realm. The Lord Jesus did not come to change the immutable laws of the spirit realm but to convert sinners to righteousness so they may gain eternal life.

The Christian redemption includes the forgiveness of our sins but is characterized primarily by raising us from the death of sin into the life of righteous, holy, and obedient conduct. When we conceive of salvation as a "ticket" to Heaven, we are missing God's purpose in bringing us to Christ.

God sends tribulation, pain, suffering, on all of us. Those who receive Christ and who, through the grace of the Lord Jesus, wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb, enter the Kingdom of God. Those who reject Christ, or who continue in sin, cannot enter the Kingdom of God. This is true in the present world and also in the world to come (Revelation 22:14,15).

We are saved, and we enter the Kingdom of God, through much tribulation (I Peter 4:18,19; 5:10).

The manifestation stage is the fourth part of the marriage of the Lamb. The redeeming of the bodies of the members of the Bride is the first aspect of the manifestation stage. It is the raising of our bones and flesh from the grave and the clothing of them with the white robe of incorruptible, righteous, eternal life.

The raising and glorifying of the saints is announced in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, the fourth chapter of I Thessalonians, the fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians, and the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation (see also Isaiah 60:1-3; 61:10,11).

Until our body has been redeemed we cannot be joined together totally with the Lord Jesus; we cannot become visible in glory to the peoples of the earth; we cannot crush the forces of wickedness in the earth; and we cannot bring life and restoration to the material creation.

The raising and glorifying of our mortal body is a major goal of the Christian life. It is an important part of our "Canaan," our land of promise. It is the hope offered by John 3:16. It is victory over the last enemy. It is the Good News of the Kingdom of God. It is the end of Satan's dominion over us. It is the beginning of life as God meant life to be lived and enjoyed. It is the recovering of what was lost in Paradise because of the original sin.

It is the final step in the marriage of the Lamb.

To be continued.