I think Christianity as a whole has missed the mark throughout two millennia. No doubt there have been notable exceptions. We have missed the mark by not recognizing clearly the two distinctly different creations—the temporary flesh and blood, and then the Divine.

God has no intention of saving our first personality. Adam simply cannot enter the Kingdom of God. God's provision for the first, adamic creation is the cross. The world has been crucified to us and we to the world.

Christianity has been a religion in which the first, soulish creation seeks to adorn itself so God will bring it to Heaven to be with Him. One might as well expect a pig to be a suitable guest in the parlor. The proud, stubborn, self-seeking, conniving natural mind of man always is the enemy of God.

We can neither see nor enter the Kingdom of God until we are born again of the Divine Nature. That which is born in us is Christ. It is the Kingdom of God. It is of God. Everything that God intends to preserve from our first nature must die in Christ and then be raised again in Christ. Nothing of the old sinful nature can remain in the Kingdom—absolutely nothing!

When then do we become? We become as our Lord is—son of man and son of God. Our adamic nature serves as a root on which is grafted the Divine Life of God. Our physical body is adopted. The coexistence of the human and Divine constitutes a new kind of humanity which can fulfill perfectly the four aspects of the Divine decree concerning man.

The Four Great Types

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. (I Corinthians 10:11—NIV)

Four major types of the Christian salvation may be found in the Old Testament. The four major types are as follows:

The seven items of furniture of the Tabernacle of the Congregation.

The seven feasts of the Lord.

The six days of creation and the seventh day of rest.

The seven major points of Israel's journey from Egypt to Canaan.

Since I have discussed the four great types at length in other books and booklets, let me just point out some of the main features so the reader can grasp the general idea.

We can group together the first of the seven elements of each of the four types as follows: the Altar of Burnt Offering of the Tabernacle; the feast of Passover; the creating of light and the separating of the light from the darkness; and the exodus from Egypt.

Can you see that we have borrowed the first item of each of the four types? Can you see that these four examples portray the beginning of our salvation in Christ? We have the Altar representing the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary; the Passover Lamb whose blood protects us from the destroyer; the creating of the Light of Christ in us and the separating of that light from the darkness that is in us; and finally our exodus from the world and the beginning of our pilgrimage toward our inheritance in Christ in God.

To be continued.