Book 3 of Musings All Kinds of Creatures
God loves variety. There are all kinds of creatures in the physical and spirit realms, a wealth of personalities.
It is not a simple matter of Heaven and Hell, although there is a Heaven and there is a Hell. There are all kinds of people with their own ways of doing things, gathered together in families. There are some on Mount Zion who follow the Lamb. God knows them as He knows Abraham and Moses. You too can be a friend of God if this is what you truly desire.
I think we Christians have a traditional concept of salvation and of Heaven that is not quite accurate. We have our concept of Hell, where the wicked go, and Heaven where all the Christians go. Heaven and Hell. Most assuredly there is a Hell. The rich man is there. Assuredly there is a Heaven. The beggar is there in Abraham's bosom.
One problem with our thinking is we often teach that if we "accept Christ" we will go to Heaven when we die, whether we are a righteous or a wicked person; although I don't believe there is any passage in the New Testament that actually teaches this. Do you know of any?
The counterpart of this is that all people except those who have "accepted Christ" will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, there to endure torment forever.
I don't believe this is a true picture of salvation or of the spirit realm.
First of all, while Jesus warned us about Hell, His emphasis was on eternal life and on living righteously. He told us He Himself is Life, and when we receive Him and abide in Him we have eternal life and will not come into condemnation. He said nothing about going to Heaven. Eternal life is a state of being. Heaven is a place.
Jesus also said some bear fruit a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. The fruit that is borne is Christ in us. Not all people possess Christ to the same extent. We can notice this as we look about us in the churches.
Jesus spoke of being worthy of the Kingdom of God.
Daniel spoke of some who will be raised to shame and everlasting contempt.
I am not certain I can put into words what I feel, but I will try to give you the flavor of it.
The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints governing the people God chooses to save from destruction. All people in the new world will possess Christ and God to some extent. There will be no individual without some measure of God in him or her.
The new Jerusalem will consist of God's elect, and the elect will differ greatly in their spiritual maturity. We see, in the kingdom of David, this idea of ranks, with the three mighty men, and then the thirty, and then the remainder of the fighting men. We see the ranks in the New Testament with three on the Mount of Transfiguration, the remaining nine disciples, the seventy, and the remainder of Israel.
There will be a firstfruits to God and the Lamb.
They will follow Christ wherever He goes.
The point is, there will be a great spread of people, many of whom will have severe personality problems. This is why Christ and His saints will govern with a rod of iron and smash all rebellious spirits into pieces.
Who will be in Hell?
The truly wicked, and some of them will be professing Christians.
Who will be in Heaven? Heaven is not the issue, for God is moving with His people to the earth, and the saved people from the nations will live on the new earth.
Who then will live on the new earth? Every kind of person you can imagine. They will not be perfect. It will be just like today, where there are numerous people, some with pleasing dispositions and some we tend to avoid-all with differing personalities.
Who will not be permitted on the new earth?
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)
These eight kinds of people will not be permitted to live in the Kingdom of God.
Now I want the reader to take special note of the following statement, for I think it is not always understood: The Lord Jesus did not come to earth and die for our sins so these eight type of people can go to Heaven to live with God. The Lord made an atonement with His blood and then sent down the Holy Spirit of God so:
The cowardly will become courageous.
The unbelieving will have faith.
The vile will become decent.
The murderers will become loving.
The sexually immoral will become holy.
The practitioners of magic arts will turn from them and live in the Spirit of God.
The idolaters will forsake their idols and love God with all their heart.
The liars will become known for their truthfulness and integrity.
If you can understand the above you will understand the Kingdom of God.
The tremendous error of today's teaching is that Jesus Christ came so:
The cowardly can go to Heaven and live in a mansion because he or she believes in Christ.
The unbelieving can have fellowship with God because he has made a profession of Christ.
The vile can rule with Christ because he believes in Christ.
The murderer will inherit the Kingdom of God because he believes in Christ.
The sexually immoral will have fellowship with the holiest of the angels because he believes in Christ.
The witches and warlocks will continue to practice their incantations before the Throne of God because they believe in Christ.
The idolaters will worship their gods in their heart while they are walking on the street of gold because they believe in Christ.
The liars will be accepted as prophets of God because they believe in Christ.
All of these abominations will take place because of grace and God's unconditional love.
Can you see the terribly destructive, unscriptural teaching of our time?
Our teaching is that Christ came to take the drunk to Heaven to live with God.
The Bible teaching is that Christ came to enable the drunk to overcome his craving for alcohol and become a responsible citizen.
This monumental error of our time, that Divine grace enables the untransformed to have fellowship with God, is based on a faulty concept of the spirit realm. We are picturing some kind of Oz in which the Christians are admitted and do nothing of significance for eternity, and all other people are cast into the inferno where they will curse God and Christ for eternity.
The truth is, the spirit realm is a continuation of the present world, except that it is invisible. If we are haughty now we will continue to be haughty after we die and enter the spirit realm. We will be placed where haughtiness is commonplace and where we will not upset the social group.
We may think God is interested in casting most of the people whom He has created into the deepest Hell. He is not. He is going to save most of the people. Christ died for the sins of the world. God loves the world and has determined to bring the Tree of Life back to the earth.
But people will not be changed! They will still be themselves, particularly after the resurrection.
The people who will be different are those who are genuine disciples; who have denied themselves, taken up their cross, and are following the Lord. They are being transformed morally each day, and you can see the change now. They are being changed right before our eyes.
But most people in the churches, while the majority are honest, hard-working folks, do not change much after fifty years of church attendance. They will be placed in the spirit realm where they fit. In the Day of Resurrection they will be brought into the new world just as they are, and will be governed by the victorious saints.
It is all so real, so practical. I think the biggest surprise we will have when we die is that there are no surprises. People are still people. Those who have been mature Christians on earth will take their place among the mature. Those who have been self-seeking will take their place among the self-seeking. People will continue to be people with all their differences of personality.
I think if we would view the Lord Jesus as our Means of changing into a man or woman of God, we would be closer to the truth. As it is, we view the Lord Jesus as a ticket who is going to change us magically so we come forth as giants of spiritual splendor who will govern the nations with unlimited authority and power, even though we can't gain victory today over gossiping, covetousness, and lust.
I hope I have given you some feeling of the reality of God's Kingdom and of the spirit realm which we enter when we die, and which will come to the earth, at least in part, when the Lord returns. There will be no magical change of personality. What we are, we are.
You know, during the thousand-year Kingdom Age that is at hand, the earth will be full of the Glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
Even with this continuing revival, the nations will have to be smashed with the rod of iron.
You know what this tells us? It tells us that even though God pours out His Spirit in revival, and multitudes are saved, healed, and filled with the Spirit, this sort of revival does not produce the permanent change that God is looking for-the change into righteous behavior.
Think of the many outstanding revivals that have taken place in the United States over the last two hundred years. Yet today God's people are babies when it comes to recognizing good and evil, to embracing the good and renouncing the evil. They are absolute babies, jumping up and down next to their pews, hoping the Lord will come and take them to Heaven where they can eat candy without getting fat.
I think God is ready to chastise us American Christians. He is going to take us to the woodshed, and we are going to learn that while God is loving He also is stern when it comes to our behavior. He wants us to learn His ways of righteousness and holiness. We know this is correct, don't we.
God has not forsaken us in America. We are going to survive if we don't give up on God. But we shall have to live closer to Jesus than we have been.
In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2-3)