One of the main purposes of the thousand-year Kingdom Age, as we understand it, is the perfecting of the Wife of the Lamb. It is not until the thousand years have been completed that the new Jerusalem, the Wife of the Lamb without spot, wrinkle, or blemish is brought into view.

At the beginning of the thousand-year period a firstfruits of the Bride has made herself ready for the marriage.

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. (Revelation 19:7)

But it is not until the end of the Kingdom Age that the entire Wife of the Lamb is ready for her eternal destiny as the Tabernacle of God.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)

The most important concept of the Scriptures is that of union. No other concept approaches union in significance.

Christ is in total union with the Father. So perfect, so total is that union it is impossible to separate the Father and the Son. Although Jesus and the Father are two distinct Persons, neither One is an individual apart from the Other.

Where the Father is, there is Jesus. Where Jesus is, there is the Father. He who has the Son has the Father also. It is impossible to have One without the Other.

The same union is to be true of us.

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21)

If we were not to be made an integral part of God through Jesus, Jesus would have told us so (John 14:2).

The greatest of the mysteries of the Scriptures is that Christ is in us. The Lord God of Heaven is creating a living temple for Himself of which the Tabernacle of the Congregation is a type. The Lord Jesus is the chief Cornerstone of the eternal Temple of God.

Christ is the House, and the only House, of the Father. But in Christ there are many rooms, many abiding places. Each saint is being formed as a room in the House of God, as a room in Christ.

Christ is being enlarged through us. We are the completeness, the fullness of Christ just as a wife is the completeness, the fullness of her husband.

The purpose of the two thousand years of the Christian Era has been to call the Church, the Body of Christ, out of the world. Some members of the Church are pressing through to the union with Christ that all the members will, to a greater or lesser extent, experience one day. It appears that the greater part of the Church will come into union with Christ during the thousand-year period.

To be continued.