(tm) When will this take place?

When will this take place

We submit that this glorious experience, this climax of redemption, will take place in the victorious saints just prior to the return of Christ to the earth. The entrance of the Father and the Son into us will serve as a "trumpet" announcing the worldwide appearing of the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Glory of the coming of God will flash as lightning through His saints from one end of the heavens to the other.

Antichrist will behold the Glory of Christ but will be helpless before it. Christ will, in full view of Antichrist and the nations of the earth, call up to Himself His Church, now glorified and ready to be revealed in glory.

The nations of the earth will behold this glory. In that hour, all earth’s peoples will know that God has sent Christ.

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)

Some of the nations, knowing that Christ has come from God, will fight against Him, attempting to prevent His entrance into the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. They will be destroyed. The birds of the earth will be filled with their flesh, as David warned Goliath.

This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. (I Samuel 17:46)

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. (Revelation 19:17,18)

The remainder of the nations will come to the glorified saints to receive the blessing of the Lord.

And the Gentiles [nations] shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (Isaiah 60:3)

Notice when this unparalleled glory will arise on the saints:

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. (Isaiah 60:2)

We know that Christ will return at the "midnight hour." At the climax of the spiritual darkness that soon will cover the earth, the Father and the Son will enter the saints. At that time, God dwelling in His saints in the personal fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles will "roar" against His enemies.

The Spirit of Christ in Joel reveals these events clearly:

The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. (Joel 3:15-17)

When Jesus returns it will be the dead "in Christ" who will rise (I Thessalonians 4:16). What does it mean to be in Christ ? To be in Christ means to participate in the personal, spiritual fulfillment of each of the seven feasts as they are presented to us by the Holy Spirit.

We cannot stop with the first three, or with the first four, and then forget about the remainder of God’s program of redemption. Hebrews 3:18 warns us concerning the peril of coming short of the fullness of God’s plan. Like the Ark of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus always is moving forward. If we are to abide in Him we must continue believing and pressing forward in Him until we enter the promised-land rest of God.

When the Lord returns, the victorious saints will be made immortal. By victorious we mean they have embraced the program of redemption, not stopping at any point. They have been cleansed from worldliness, sin, and self-seeking and now are living stones in the eternal Temple of God. They are true disciples of the Lord Jesus, not just churchgoers.

God in His mercy will not issue immortality in the body to the believer who has not been diligent in the program of redemption. An immortal sinner cannot be redeemed. He must be cast down in spiritual chains and receive his portion with the fallen angels.

The rewards designated for the overcomer will be issued only to the overcomer!

God prevented Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of life so that in time He could redeem them. If they, in their sinful, self-willed state, had partaken of immortality they would have been bound in chains and confined in the eternal darkness.

God has placed Adam and Eve and all their descendants in bodies of clay, in a state of futility. This is so God may have a chance to deliver them from trust in the world, from sin, and from self-will. God has imprisoned us in these humbled bodies in the hope that through Christ we can be reconciled to God.

It can be seen, therefore, that God in His love will not raise into Christ’s fiery Presence a believer who has not been redeemed fully. Should such an unfortunate soul appear among the "guests" while clothed in his worldliness, sins, and self-seeking, the King soon will come and command His servants to bind the sinner and cast him into outer darkness (Matthew 22:11-14).

Today Christ is coming to each of us as an individual. He is knocking at the door of our heart in fulfillment of the Old Testament Blowing of Trumpets. He desires to enter our heart and dine with us, and we with Him in fulfillment of the Day of Reconciliation.

If we will allow Him to do so He shall cleanse us from all sin and self-seeking until we find rest in His Presence. He will bring the Father and they shall sit on the throne of our personality in fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.

Christ is constructing the house of God. He is preparing each stone so it can be filled with all the fullness of God. The stones are being fashioned "at the quarry."

And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. (I Kings 6:7)

When the last stone has been perfected the whole temple will flow together "without the sound of a hammer." The unity of the Body of Christ is not a goal that will be accomplished by the efforts of well-intentioned believers. The unity of the Body will come into being naturally as each living stone is brought into the image of Christ and into union with Christ.

When the Lord builds up Zion He will appear in His Glory. Then shall the eternal Temple be filled with all the fullness of God.

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