An unimaginably glorious future awaits the victorious Christian saints. But the events of that future may be far more realistic, more practical, more earthly, more human, and involve more effort and danger, than we have envisioned.

As for dying and going to Heaven, that too may be more wonderful, and more practical and "human," than we are anticipating. We actually shall see the Lord Jesus and be reunited with our loved ones, not as wraiths or clouds but as solid, real, clearly recognizable people.

Perhaps if we have been faithful during our pilgrimage on the earth, the Lord will allow us to continue to serve Him in the spirit realm (whether in Heaven or on the earth) when we die. An active person ordinarily does not joyfully anticipate doing nothing unless he is exhausted and needs a rest.

All creation, Heaven and earth, is looking forward to the Day of the Lord. Our body, then animated by indestructible resurrection life, will be raised from the dead and clothed with a body like that of the Lord Jesus.

Meanwhile, the victorious saint can joyously anticipate his physical death. We shall lay down our cross, our pains, perplexities, and dreads, and enter the Paradise of God.

The Scriptures do not emphasize our dying and going to the spiritual Heaven because God has prepared a destiny for us far more glorious than Heaven itself. The grandest of all destinies is to participate in the entrance of the Kingdom of God into the earth.

The glory of the spiritual Heaven emanates from the Lord Jesus Christ. All that is of heavenly worth dwells in Him.

As soon as the Church has been brought to unity and maturity, the Divine Glory of Christ will be poured into the Church (John 17:22). The Church then will be, as Jesus is now—the incarnation of the Glory of God.

Then the Church, the Body of Christ, will bring the Divine Glory to the nations of the earth (Habakkuk 2:14). The saints, possessing immortal bodies of astonishing capabilities, will labor among the nations of saved peoples of the earth, bringing life and healing to them (Ezekiel 47:12). During this thousand-year period the entire Christian Church will be brought to the fullness of perfection and beauty in preparation for its eternal role as the Wife of the Lamb (Luke 13:32; Isaiah 54:11-13; Revelation 21:2).

When God is satisfied that all for which He created the present heaven and the earth has been accomplished, He will do away with them and create a new heaven and a new earth.

The Wife of the Lamb, the Body of Christ, the perfected saints, possessing the fullness of the Glory of God and the Lamb, will descend from the new heaven to be established for eternity on the new earth.

The closing chapters of the Scriptures portray the end result of the Christian redemption. The Church, the Jerusalem of God, now is perfect. All the glory and beauty of Heaven is in it. But unlike the present spiritual Heaven, the new Jerusalem is glorified flesh and bone. It no longer is merely spiritual, it is an eternal blend of the spiritual and the material. The Divine Glory has become incarnate in Christ—Head and Body. It is Emmanuel —God with us.

The nations of saved peoples of the earth, being free from Satan and from the Divine curse that always attends the presence and working of Satan, are able to enjoy the goodness of God on the new earth. They will be ruled forever by the Lord in Christ in the saints.

To be continued.