Generally speaking, it is time for the members of the Body of Christ to come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Two other insights are of great importance.

First, the goal of salvation. An understanding of the goal of salvation is critically important if one is to grasp what the Spirit is saying today.

Our traditional goal is to go to Heaven to live forever. Added to this is the hope of a beautiful mansion where we will visit forever with our friends, doing little of significance for eternity.

You will not find anywhere in the Bible that the goal of salvation is to bring you to Heaven where you will recline in your mansion and visit with your friends. The goal of salvation is to change you into the moral image of Christ and to bring you into untroubled rest in the center of God's will. The purpose of such change and such rest is that you might serve Christ forever in His Kingdom, that you might work with Him in bringing justice to the nations.

The second insight concerns the nature of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ and the reason for His return to earth.

The current tradition is that the purpose of the coming of the Lord is to carry off His Bride to Heaven. You will not find such a notion anywhere in the Bible.

The purpose of the coming of the Lord is to establish His Kingdom on the earth and to bring justice to the nations.

In line with this purpose the Lord will raise His saints, His army, from the dead and clothe them with glorified bodies. Then they will be caught up together with the living saints to meet the Lord in the air, in the area of the spiritual thrones from which the world is governed.

After this the Lord will descend, followed by His victorious saints, and drive evil from the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ will be crowned King of kings on the Temple Mount in the city of Jerusalem. From there He and His saints will go forth and govern the nations, teaching them the eternal moral law of God.

Because the Lord's purpose in coming is to call His army to Himself, the lukewarm Christians of our day will be left behind. Only the called, chosen, and faithful members of the royal priesthood will be resurrected at that time and caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Remember the parable of the ten virgins? Do you see that half of the virgins, all Christians but not all with the Life of Christ developed in their personalities, went to be with the Lord and the door was shut in the face of the other half?

So it will be at His appearing.

Now let's think about the truth that is to be restored in our day and see if we are willing to forsake our unscriptural traditions and bear the reproach that always accompanies the restoration of the original Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

To be continued.