Our position, based on the passages of Scripture presented in previous essays on this topic, that only a holy remnant of victorious saints will rise to meet the Lord when He appears, is not commonly held. We are aware of the awesome implications of such a position in terms of current Evangelical thinking.

We have come to this belief after several years of consideration. If we are correct, the members of the Body, the Church of Christ, must take a more serious and determined view of the need to live in spiritual victory if they expect to be received of the Lord Jesus at His appearing.

Some Christian teachers, recognizing that the rewards to the overcomer are authority and power ordinarily associated with the Christian faith, are stating that all who make a statement of belief in Jesus automatically are classed as overcomers and therefore are eligible to be raised in glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus. If this were true the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation would be absolutely meaningless.

The true Christian life is a fight against forces that are striving to make us worldly, sinful, and self-willed. An overcomer is a believer who through Jesus is winning this battle.

It is plain that the current emphasis on perpetual forgiveness apart from growth in righteous behavior and the hope of the pre-tribulation catching up of all believers no matter how undisciplined their lives, is not preparing the saints to be part of the glorious appearing of the Lord.

Within the Ark of the Covenant were three items:

The Ten Commandments.

The memorial jar of manna.

Aaron's rod that budded.

Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; (Hebrews 9:4)

The three items located in the Ark of the Covenant portray the character of the victorious saint, the character required for participation in the first resurrection from the dead.

* The eternal law of God. The two tables of stone on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments, the limited expression of the eternal law of God, were the first articles to be placed in the Ark.

And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony [the Ten Commandments] that I shall give thee. (Exodus 25:21)

The Ten Commandments were the only remaining article when the Ark was placed in Solomon's Temple.

There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. (I Kings 8:9)

We see from the above two passages that the tables of stone containing the Ten Commandments were the most important of the items placed in the Ark.

To be continued.