But won't all people eventually come forth from the grave? Yes, they will.

But it appears that the bodies of the unsaved, even though they come forth from the ground, have never been touched with God's Life. What will be the end of their bodies we do not know except that they shall not be renewed with the Life of God.

Therefore the individual who has been raised from the dead apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, has perished as a person, having no hope of ever entering the Presence of God or His Kingdom.

Whether his or her destiny after he or she is raised and judged is Hell, or the Lake of Fire, or the outer darkness, or to be a wandering star, only Christ will decide. The point is, the individual has perished.

Perishing has at least four undesirable features:

The body will never be made alive by the Holy Spirit.

The person will never again be able to experience the Presence and blessing of God (this is the worst of all consequences).

God may not erase the painful memories of the individual who perishes as He will those who are received into His Kingdom.

The person may be cast into the Lake of Fire or some other area of torment.

It must be kept in mind that the Lord Jesus did not come to earth to give people a pass from Hell to Paradise. The Lord Jesus came to forgive us and furnish us with an opportunity to be transformed so we are acceptable to the Father. There is a world of difference between these two concepts.

Heaven (or the heavens), as we have said, includes all the areas of physical space and the areas of the spiritual realm. Eternal life, however, has to do with our entering the Life of God.

John 3:16 tells us that whoever will put his continuing trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will not perish as a person but will be received into the Life that fills the Godhead.

Perhaps what we have said to this point is not too surprising to the experienced saint. However, the serious problems residing in Christian thought are that eternal life is one, eternal existence; two, a gift that is given in its fullness upon our receiving Christ; and three, a legal state that exists in our mind and the mind of God rather than what it truly is—a form of life, just as biologic life is a form of life.

"Receive Christ and you have eternal life." In today's preaching this means that when you die you will go to a mansion in Paradise to live forever among the angels.

The truth is:

Eternal life is not eternal existence. All spirits, righteous and wicked, will exist for eternity.

We have only a firstfruits of eternal life upon our conversion to Christ, an "earnest," a pledge of a fullness yet to come.

Eternal life is actual, substantial life. It is the Life of God dwelling in us, not a legal state that can never be affected by our behavior. As the parable of the sower reveals to us (along with many other passages), we certainly can lose the initial Divine Life given to us when we received Christ.

To be continued.