When are we saved? Let us now present a thought that will require a careful study of the Scriptures on the part of the devout believer. It is this: salvation is not what takes place when we die but when the Lord returns.

It will require another generation or two before God's people understand salvation is not something that takes place when we die.

Today when we speak of being "saved" we mean only one thing: we will go to Heaven when we die.

This is not scriptural. Search the Scriptures for yourself. You will discover very little is said concerning what happens to us when we die. Salvation has to do with what happens to us when the Lord returns.

Are you willing to make such a conceptual leap? You might as well because it is the truth of Scripture.

When Jesus returns you may or may not be raised from the dead and ascend to meet Him in the air. This is the first resurrection and it is for the victorious saints—those who were living in Christ when they died. I do not know what will happen to you when you die. Where you will be before you return with the Lord to take up your body I am not prepared to say.

Paul said for him to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But I seriously doubt this is true for every believer, especially for the multitude of churchgoers who have served Christ halfheartedly. Maybe it is but I doubt it.

We know about the foolish virgins, about the person who wasted his talent. We understand from Galatians that if we who are believers live in the flesh we will reap corruption. But all of this takes place when the Lord returns, not when we die.

At the Judgment Seat of Christ we will receive the good we have done and the bad we have done. Not when we die but when the Lord returns.

When the Lord appears He will summon the dead from their graves. Those who have done good will be raised to life and those who have practiced evil to the resurrection of judgment. But where were they in the meantime?

When the Lord returns He will give rewards to every one of us or punish us, according to what we have done. But where are we before He returns? Concerning this our traditions have a great deal to say but the Scriptures very little.

Paul delivered the Corinthian believer to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so his spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord. But where would he be in the meantime? His spirit was not saved when he died but in the Day of the Lord.

If we believe and are baptized we will be spared destruction when the Day of Wrath commences. This is the most elementary meaning of being saved. But where will we be after we die and before the Day of Wrath?

To be continued.