(tm) The basic meaning of salvation is preservation.
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To be saved is to be brought forward to the new heaven and earth reign of the Lord Jesus, to the true life of which the present life in the mortal body is only a forerunner.
However, the fullest meaning of salvation of the elect is transformation into the image of Christ and union with God through Christ. For the elect to be fully saved is to become man , in the scriptural sense, and to inherit all things.
God’s royal priesthood will be brought forward to the fullness of the Divine salvation.
The nations of the saved will enjoy life on the new earth under the government of the saints of the new Jerusalem but will not be in the image of God and in union with God to the same extent as the royal priesthood. This is our understanding.
The reason Christians have viewed salvation and membership in the Body of Christ as synonymous is that the writers of the New Testament speak of the two experiences as though they are equivalent (Acts 2:47; Romans 9:22-24,27). The emphasis during the Church Age has been on the creation of the Church. But the prophecies of the Old Testament state clearly there will be people whom God has not destroyed but who still are not members of God’s priesthood (Isaiah 61:6; Zechariah 14:16).
In establishing the Kingdom of God, God first revealed His King, the Lord Jesus Christ. After that will come the Body of Christ, the Church, the "called-out" from the nations of the earth. The Christian Church is a "firstfruits" of God’s creatures (James 1:18). It does not include all who are to be saved any more than the sheaf of barley waved before the Priest on the day of Firstfruits included all the barley in the field.
Israel (the elect of God) is God’s firstborn, the oldest son (Hebrews 12:23). All members of Christ are God’s firstborn. They are holy to the Lord. They will be God’s priests, serving the rest of saved mankind forever.
To view the Lord’s elect as the only persons who are to be saved would be to misunderstand God’s purpose in calling out a "firstborn" from among mankind (Exodus 13:12).
The Christian Church, the royal priesthood, is not the only group of people whom God intends to save from eternal torment. Israel was called out from among the other nations of the earth to be a Kingdom of priests, not so all the peoples of the other nations should perish.
The concept of the "elect" is that of people who are chosen from among the nations of the earth, not only to be saved from torment but to serve as lights for the remainder of mankind. This is an eternal role (Revelation 21:24).
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: (Exodus 19:5)
"A peculiar treasure unto me above all people," not the only people who are to be saved!
As soon as the Body of Christ has been brought to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Christ will appear (Psalms 102:16; Ephesians 4:13). Then Christ and His Body will bring judgment (justice) to the nations of saved peoples of the earth (Isaiah, Chapter 42).
The members of the Body of Christ were known to God before the creation of the world. God predestined them, not only to be saved from wrath (although they are saved, of course) but to be changed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28,29).
After they have been raised in the first resurrection the sons of God will go forth, not to doom the creation to the Lake of Fire but to release it into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:19).
A multitude of earth’s peoples will be saved by believing in Christ as soon as the sons of God are revealed (John 17:21).
If the first resurrection of God’s royal priesthood will result in the salvation of many of earth’s peoples, how can we say that only those who participate in the first resurrection will be saved?
To understand the difference between God’s true Israel, His Zion, and the nations of the saved, we can study many passages of Scripture, including the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah.
There is Israel, God’s called-out people, and then there are the nations of the saved.
Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles [nations], and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. (Isaiah 60:11,12)
Here we observe the clear distinction between God’s people and the nations of saved peoples of the earth. This picture is identical to that presented in Revelation, Chapters 21 and 22. The last two chapters of the Book of Revelation declare that the Jerusalem portrayed in them is the Wife of the Lamb (Revelation 21:9). The Wife of the Lamb is the Christian Church.
The current teaching, which seems to be a maze of contradictions, has the "Gentile Church" (itself an unscriptural concept) in Heaven; while the Jews (not saved because they were not part of the first resurrection of the saints) are ruling over nations of people (not saved because they were not part of the first resurrection of the saints).