All is moving like clockwork. Can we lose our appointed place by neglecting our calling? Most assuredly we can according to the Scriptures. We must be careful not to make our own "therefores." We must study the Scriptures inductively, not deductively, exclaiming "Amen" over each and every verse whether or not we can reconcile the seeming contradictions.

The Gospel was preached to those who are dead. Period. This is a fact. Whatever conclusions we draw from this must not conflict with any other verse or we have drawn the wrong conclusion.

Doesn't it state that it is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment? Yes, it does. It is appointed to every individual to die. After this he will be judged according to the light he has had. Those who have had great understanding of God's program will be greatly responsible to have responded in terms of their knowledge. Those who never heard of the Bible, Israel, or Jesus Christ, will be judged according to the light they did have.

Only God in Christ, and sometimes in the saints appointed to be judges, will determine whether an individual is to be brought into the program of redemption, including suffering to remove worldliness, lust, and self-will, or whether the person is lost, barred from the Kingdom of God, cut off from the redemptive working of Divine grace.

"Brother Thompson, how can we have worldliness or lust once we die and leave this world?"

Don't you realize worldliness and lust are spirits? They have become part of your personality. In the day of resurrection they will again inhabit your body unless Jesus Christ removes them as part of your salvation. A person can be in the spirit realm and still be bound with all sorts of things according to the visions of the saints. And why not?

Do you have a jealous spirit? Do you imagine this spirit will leave you because your body died? The spirit of jealousy did not originate in your flesh but in Satan. He is the author of all jealousy, all lying, all murder, all lust, all spite, all envy, all violence, and everything else that is destructive.

He who commits sin is of the devil according to the Apostle John.

We who love Jesus are pressing on the upward way. We suffer various afflictions but the good Lord delivers us from them all. Our afflictions are a judgment of God on the worldliness, lust, and self-will in our personality. We are purified by the baptism of fire.

Seeing this is true, let us rejoice in the Lord always and riotously. He is worthy of extreme adoration.

The day will come soon enough when the cross is lifted from our back and we enter glory unimaginable in the present hour. Our greatest joy will be to look back and see that we trusted and obeyed God through the many dangers, toils, and snares of our pilgrimage.

Difficult, yes. But through the Lord Jesus entirely possible. (from Salvation Through Judgment and Suffering)