The fact that there will be "fishers" and many kinds of "fish" tells us the revealing of the sons of God will not be a great blanket of glory thrown over mankind. Just as is true today there will be many kinds of people and many kinds of saints to minister to their individual personalities and needs.

No doubt numerous persons will find it difficult to accept the Glory of God that will be streaming from the saints. Perhaps also there will be saints praying that their relatives who are undecided will be willing to receive eternal life. Such skeptical people will have to be "caught" with skill so they can be brought into the Kingdom of God.

Sometimes Christian believers view the end-time events, such as the resurrection of the dead and the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth, as being massive interventions of God occurring with such power that what will take place will be inevitable. This is not a true picture of the dawning of the Kingdom Age. Remember Lot's wife! Decisions can be made in the most critical times!

Then as now it will be a case of ordinary people making ordinary decisions. God will never force His will on anyone. Each individual must of his own choice open his or her heart to the Lord Jesus. This is true today and will be true for eternity. There will be fishers and there will be people who will be "caught" for the Lord's purposes.

It may be true that one of the greatest of all surprises will be that at the coming of the Lord there are no surprises. God's Word will remain the same. People will still be people. The events of the future will not bring change to us except that our outer form will be affected. But the inner nature will not be changed. Our inner nature will be revealed in the Day of the Lord.

It is important that we understand this because current teaching can leave us with the impression that somehow, somewhere, in some manner all will be changed when the Lord appears. Careless, lazy, indifferent, unfaithful believers will hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter the joy of your Lord." Although the Scripture and our common sense tell us such could never take place, our fallible nature may cause us to hope that in spite of everything, all will be taken care of when the Lord comes. It is a fantasy.

The coming of the Lord will be "out of the frying pan into the fire" for all who have not taken up their cross and followed the Master with a pure heart.

But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt. (Ezekiel 47:11)

The "miry places" and the "marishes" (swamps and marshes) are people who are unstable, who lack integrity. Even today they cannot serve the Lord because of the corruption and instability that is in them. If they will call on the Lord Jesus He will bring them into fires and pressures that will burn away the "swamps and marshes" until steel is formed in them. As long as they continue without integrity they will not experience the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God.

To be continued.