The Lord is coming to take His Church to Heaven.

Heaven is the eternal home of the saint.

Every believer when he or she dies will live in a mansion and walk on a street of gold.

We shall receive our reward when we go to Heaven.

Our physical body will not be raised from the dead.

We can never be lost once we have been saved.

When you pick yourself up from the floor we shall proceed.

It may be helpful to the reader to realize the writer of the above paragraph is a deeply committed Christian, one who believes firmly in the full verbal inspiration of the generally accepted Hebrew and Greek texts. He also is an ordained pastor in a respected Pentecostal denomination.

We will discuss the six traditions from a scriptural rather than a philosophical viewpoint. We do not use analogies or deductive reasoning, for the most part, but support our position with clear passages of the Scriptures kept in context.

Why devout leaders more intelligent than we would miss the obvious error of the six traditions is not understandable, unless it is true that because we are so close to the return of the Lord and the establishing of the Kingdom of God on the earth the former beliefs will not meet the present needs. It seems the seals are being removed from the Book.

Also, the coming to maturity of the tares of wickedness requires a firmer hold on the Scriptures than we have had. Today is the day of the Lord's power, a time for strength and victory in the earth, which necessitates strength and victory in the spirit realm.

"Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." (Luke 24:39—NIV)

The above verse may appear to be an interruption of our thought, But it is not. Let us hasten to explain.

Jesus rose physically from the dead. The Bible tells of the fall, and then of the redemption of man through the Lord Jesus Christ. A physical man sinned and returned to the dust, as God warned. A physical man came forth from the cave as a promise that physical man will one day gain immortality. Adam and Eve and their saved descendants will once again live in Paradise on the earth.

The physical earth is very good and this is where man is destined to live forever, although as a humanity superior to that which we presently enjoy—and without the corrupting presence of the fallen angels.

Satan views the physical earth as his domain. He will oppose fiercely any move of Jesus Christ and His saints that appears to be capable of disturbing Satan's hold on the flesh of mankind. The serpent has been condemned to eat dust and possesses an unquenchable lust for the flesh of humans.

Satan could wish we all would go to Heaven (where he came from) and leave him and his demons to satiate their lustful appetites through the flesh of people.

But the unchanging Word states that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.

To be continued.