29 The Apostle James was a tormenter of worldly Christians:

Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. (James 4:2)

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. (James 4:9) Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. (James 5:1)

The true testimony of Christ is a bitter rebuke to the world, particularly to those "Christians" who have joined themselves to the spirit of the world. Worldly believers are, and always have been, the enemies of God’s elect, the murderers of Christ.

And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, . . . . (Revelation 11:11) The first resurrection from the dead is announced in several places in the Scriptures. The above is one such portrayal, according to our understanding.

Revelation 11:11 is viewing the first resurrection from the standpoint of the renewal of the authority and power of the Divine testimony—that which God had allowed to be removed from the cities of the earth for a brief period so the tares could come to maturity (Matthew 13:30, II Thessalonians 2:7).

. . . and they stood upon their feet; . . . . Revelation 11:11)

"They stood upon their feet" is the meaning of the term resurrection. To resurrect means to animate what has been lifeless and prone; to revive it and stand it on its feet. Resurrection does not include the concept of ascension. There were forty days between the resurrection of Christ and His ascension.

Because of the erroneous teaching of the pre-tribulation disappearance and ascension ("rapture") of the saints, the Christian churches have lost sight of the apostolic first resurrection from the dead. The first resurrection from the dead, as is true also of redemption through Christ’s blood, both of which are central messages of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, has become vague and confused in the minds of the saints.

In stressing the pre-tribulation "rapture" (a false doctrine), Dispensationalists have emphasized the ascension. But the resurrection from the dead is the truly important doctrine because the resurrection is part of our redemption from the power of Satan. The ascension merely is an act of Kingdom power, being part of the movements of the believers during the Day of the Lord.

The concept that there will be a catching up or ascension of the Christian believers several years before the historic coming of the Lord is not sound. This soulish doctrine increasingly is being discredited by discerning students. The fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians, which is the principal scriptural discussion of the first resurrection from the dead, does not even mention the catching up of the Church.

Our experience has been that many devout Christian people have little or no understanding of the resurrection from the dead. They have been taught firmly that they will rise up in the air to meet the Lord at His coming. This is true. But the rising will take place after the first resurrection from the dead.

The important doctrine, that which is portrayed in the major types of the Scripture, is the resurrection from the dead. It is the resurrection that marks the fullness of redemption and the destruction of the last enemy—physical death. Our observation is that the emphasis on the "flight-to-Heaven" of the believers, since it is not scriptural, is not bringing forth the fruit of the Kingdom of God. Growth in righteous conduct is not resulting from this doctrine.

The necessity for cross-carrying obedience and the Divine plan for the formation of Christ in ruggedly righteous, holy, sternly obedient saints are being minimized or neglected in favour of an "everybody goes, get your ticket" approach to the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

Any student of the Scriptures who has made some headway in the knowledge of God’s will and working can recognize that the "get your free ticket" approach to the Gospel never was preached by the godly apostles of the first century. Rising up in the air is, relatively speaking, of little significance in the Kingdom of God. It is the redemption of the mortal body that is central to the Gospel (Romans 8:23).

The distinction between resurrection and ascension is of practical importance. The ascension requires no moral or spiritual preparation on our part. But the resurrection of the body requires that first our moral nature be filled with the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus.

Any bird can fly up into the clouds by its feathered wings. But a dead bird cannot come back to life—that requires an act of the Holy Spirit of God.

Paul did not say, If by any means I might attain unto the snatching away into the clouds. He said, "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [Greek, out-resurrection] of the dead" (Philippians 3:11).

Ascension into the clouds is not a goal of redemption. Ascension is not a Divine act of redemption that must be attained. The catching up has nothing to do with being changed into Christ’s death. We are not seeking to know the power of Christ’s catching up.

Part of the doctrinal confusion has been caused by the term raised, as used in connection with the resurrection from the dead. The word "raised" does not mean raised into Heaven. It means raised up on our feet so we can stand erect on the ground.

We are not raised into Heaven. We are raised from the dead to stand on the earth. Can you see this important distinction?

We go to Heaven when we die physically. We go to Heaven, to the Paradise of God, not on the basis of resurrection but on the basis of our physical death.

The purpose of resurrection is to reunite our soul and body so we once more can stand on the earth with our loved ones. This is the hope of the Gospel of Christ. This is the good news presented in John 3:16. When Christian teachers emphasize ascension, in the doctrine of the pre-tribulation disappearing and catching away of the saints, they are relieving the saints of the necessity for overcoming sin and self-will, for attaining the first resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:11, Revelation 20:4-6).

This misplaced emphasis along with its accompanying doctrines (people can be saved apart from sincere repentance, apart from submitting to the Lordship of Christ, apart from godly behaviour, apart from suffering) has filled the assemblies of saints with a mixed multitude whose abiding, unscriptural hope is that they will be lifted up to Paradise to have rest in comfort as Antichrist torments the Jewish Christians.

What a selfish, self-seeking doctrine! It does not take into account the welfare of our Jewish brothers and sisters, our fellow members of the one Body of Christ. Would we flee to Heaven and leave them to suffer on the earth? What a wretched betrayal of brotherly love and trust.

The ancient, apostolic hope of the Christian Church is not the catching up of the saints. It is the resurrection from the dead. The resurrection from the dead is the hope of righteousness and eternal life to come at the appearing of the Lord from Heaven.

Apart from the hope of the resurrection from the dead we Christians are, of all the peoples of the earth, the most miserable (I Corinthians 15:19).

As we have stated, I Corinthians, Chapter 15, the most important chapter of the Scriptures concerning the resurrection from the dead, does not so much as mention the ascension into the air. Neither does the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians or the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel. If the ascension were an integral part of the resurrection it would be mentioned frequently.

Ascension into the air is mentioned in the fourth chapter of First Thessalonians, but Paul was not emphasizing the desirability of being caught away into the clouds but the comforting of bereaved loved ones. The ascension of the saints is not the blessed hope of the Church, a major aspect of redemption, or an emphasis of the New Testament writings.

We have noticed that those who subscribe to the pre-tribulation rapture are not willing to reason from the Scriptures but react in an angry manner if the "rapture" doctrine is questioned. Their anger and refusal to face the unscripturalness and lack of logic of their position is due to the fact that their doctrine is not coming from the Holy Spirit of God. It is an emotional, not intellectual belief and the blind Christian spirit of our day fiercely guards this destructive error.

The resurrection from the dead is a central doctrine of the Scriptures, a major aspect of redemption having moral change as a requirement (Revelation 2:7). It is not often preached these days. The multitude of Christian preachers and teachers who are setting forth an imminent flight to Heaven to escape tribulation as the central hope of salvation are in error. No such emphasis is found in the Scriptures. They are repeating a deception that originated in the last century, a delusion that has the deadly consequence of hindering the Lord’s people from making the spiritual preparation necessary for spiritual (and perhaps physical) survival in the coming decades.

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. (Ezekiel 37:10)

Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 37:12) We understand from the preceding verses that the purpose of the resurrection from the dead is to enable us once again to live on the earth, not to carry us off to the spirit Paradise.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. (Ezekiel 37:13,14) Compare:

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11) The resurrection from the dead will make eternally alive the physical bodies of the dead and living saints. The ascension that follows is for the purpose of our rising to greet the Lord as He returns to the earth to sit on the Throne of David.

Part 2 The Apostle James was a tormenter of worldly Christians:

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