There is massive theological confusion concerning the role of Divine grace. No person ever will receive a glorified body on the basis of forgiveness. The purpose of grace is to enable us to press forward to the resurrection. If we rely on grace to forgive us without undergoing the process of personal transformation, then no glorified body has been created before God's throne. We will be found naked in the day of resurrection.

We gain entrance to the Holy of Holies when we receive the Lord Jesus so that God can hear our prayers. This is the wonderful grace of God to us. But in no manner can any individual enter the Kingdom of God by forgiveness. Paradise, yes; but not the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the doing of God's will in the earth as it is in Heaven.

Hopefully the reader will search the Scriptures to see if we are accurate and not wait until he or she dies and discover when it is too late that it is as we have stated.

Many pastors and teachers may know the strictness of God's salvation but do not preach and teach the truth. They are afraid they will lose their followers. This being the case, we urge you to not rely blindly on your spiritual leader to tell you the truth concerning your salvation. Put the apostles to the test (Revelation 2:2)!

We always should obey the elders of our church and do all we can to assist them. God has not called us to instruct the elders! But our salvation is our individual responsibility and we are required by the Lord to determine from the Scriptures what God has said about our salvation.

Let us repeat what we have stated. The Day of Atonement has begun now and the praying saints will discover that the Holy Spirit is pointing out their sins and helping them to confess them and be delivered from them. Such confession and deliverance makes possible the growth of Christ in us.

The Pursuit of Eternal Life

We have given the title "Paradise or Eternal Life?" to the present booklet. This is because Paradise and eternal life are not the same thing. The Lord Jesus and His Apostles came preaching eternal life. They never emphasized our going to dwell forever in the third heaven where the Paradise of God is located.

How many times in the four Gospel accounts did the Lord Jesus stress eternal life? Many, many times.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Notice that the contrast is not between Hell and Heaven but between perishing and eternal life. But aren't these basically the same ideas? Not at all.

Hell is God's prison where He confines the wicked. Perishing has to do with our physical body.

Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished [if there is no resurrection of the body]. (I Corinthians 15:18)

The Lord Jesus came so we might not remain a disembodied spirit after death, our flesh and bones returning to the dust of the earth from which they were taken, but might be reunited with our body now made wondrously alive by the Holy Spirit of God.

To be continued.