The second aspect to consider is that belief in Christ was never once (as far as I know) presented as a means of escape from Hell and entrance to Heaven, as it is preached today. The issue always was death and life, not Hell and Heaven. "Should not perish but have everlasting life."

One may reply that death is the same as Hell and everlasting life is the same as Heaven. This is not the case. Death and life are conditions of the personality. They have to do with our relationship to Christ. Hell and Heaven are not conditions of the personality but actual places in the spirit realm.

Sin and the consequent spiritual death originated in Heaven around the Throne of God as Satan, a covering cherub, decided to supplant the place of the Father. Heaven therefore is not our goal because going there solves nothing as far as the Kingdom is concerned. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who Himself is our Goal, the Divine Life that He Himself is, as Paul told us so emphatically.

We are trying to escape Hell. God wants to deliver us from death.

We want to go to Heaven. God wants to bring us to life.

God did not say to Adam and Eve, "In the day you eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you will surely go to Hell." God said, "In the day you eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you will surely die." These are not the same consequences although they may be related ultimately.

Death, not Hell, passed upon all people because of the disobedience of Adam. You can't do much about Hell and Heaven today. You have to wait until you die before you experience them.

But each day of your Christian discipleship you are choosing between spiritual death and spiritual life. Therefore there is an enormous practical difference between looking at Christ as our deliverer from Hell and looking at Christ as our deliverer from death.

Many—perhaps most—of the Christians in America are living in spiritual death. This is obvious from their behavior. All the while they believe they have their pass out of Hell and into Heaven. This is why they do not change their behavior. This is why the Christian churches are full of hatred, division, slander, gossip, backbiting, drunkenness, pornography, child molestation, jealousy, arrogance, haughtiness, smugness, fornication, and every other demonic behavior.

One mother was heard to say, "I know my son is a drunkard but at least he is saved." By this she meant at one point he had taken "the four steps of salvation." His profession of belief in the "four steps" guarantees his escape from Hell and entrance into Heaven when he dies, according to her thinking. Do you believe this is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God?

Let us put ourselves in God's place for a moment.

What does God desire of people and what does God expect to be the outcome of the new covenant?

To be continued.