Satan understands that it is through the victorious saints, those who have pressed forward to perfect conquest in Jesus, that his kingdom will be overthrown. If Satan can persuade the believers that all there is to the Christian redemption is a flight to the spirit Paradise, and that the authorization for this flight is nothing more than an assent to the facts of the atonement, he can continue to seek his will and image among the nations of the earth. The inheritance of Christ thus remains in Satan's hands.

The concept of the so-called "pre-tribulation rapture" is very acceptable to Satan. By encouraging the believers in Christ to look toward an escape from the earth rather than toward victory in Christ in the earth, Satan hopes to prolong his dominion in the earth.

Satan is not concerned about how many people flee into the spirit realm. What Satan is concerned about is the creation of the brothers of Christ (Romans 8:29). He knows that the Scriptures point toward the glorious Day when Christ, Head and Body, will return to drive out from the earth all wickedness. In that Day the Glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. This is the coming of the Kingdom of God foretold by John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Apostles of the Lamb.

The coming of the Day of the Lord signals the end of Satan's dominion over the earth.

The current concept of grace works against the development of godly people. It works against the fervent determination the believer must possess if he or she is to attain the out-resurrection and return with the Lord Jesus.

The current concept of grace serves only to attract large numbers of people into the Christian "clubs" (we do not say churches) and to keep them from setting aside their own life, taking up their cross, and following the Master. Rather, they are to wait until they die and go to Heaven or until the Lord comes and takes them to Heaven.

The concept of the resurrection from the dead and our living once again in our body on the earth is virtually unknown to the present generation of Christians. The apostolic emphasis on the resurrection from the dead has been set aside in favor of an unscriptural stress on the catching up ("rapture") of the believers. It is a false vision and the people are perishing as a result.

After God forgives a person He plants Christ in him and gives him of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of giving to a human being such Divine blessings is that he may overcome sin and self-seeking and grow into the image of God.

The white raiment with which the members of the Wife of the Lamb are clothed in the Day of the Lord is the righteous conduct of people who have been transformed through their living relationship with Christ (Revelation 19:8). It is a "house from heaven" that is formed as the believer sows his body to the death of the cross and lives in the resurrection Life of the Lord.

To be continued.