Consider:
Consider:
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:21,22)
Christians who are living a victorious life in Christ are the "dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit." They are the new Jerusalem that will come down from Heaven through the new sky to be installed for eternity on the new earth.
The victorious saints are now "among the people." What people? The people of the nations who have believed in Christ and have obeyed Him.
You also can see the two classes of saved people in the following passages:
Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip. (Isaiah 60:4)
Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3)
When the Glory of God falls on those who are one with God through Christ, the world will believe, as Jesus said. And so people worldwide will be drawn to God's manifest Presence. All of these people are saved to the new world of righteousness, in that they have chosen to come to Christ as He has been revealed in His saints.
There are other passages in the Bible emphasizing that Israel has been separated from the other nations of the earth in order to be a holy priesthood. The commission is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and those who are an integral part of Him.
You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. (Exodus 19:6)
And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. (Isaiah 61:6)
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (I Peter 2:9)
Think about the next verse:
The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25:40)
When Christ returns, He will sit on His Throne and the nations of the earth will be gathered before Him.
Then He will judge the people of the nations on the basis of how they treated His brothers and sisters. Those who helped the brothers and sisters of Christ, His disciples, will inherit the Kingdom of God and eternal life.
I think it is clear that the "sheep" who inherited the Kingdom of God and eternal life were not the brothers and sisters of Christ; they were not members of the Israel of God; but they were saved and inherited eternal life and the Kingdom of God.
Those who did not help the brothers and sisters of Christ were sent into the Lake of Fire to be with Satan and his angels.
As far as I can tell, there are three great ages to consider.
The first age is the Age of the Church, which began with Abraham and Sarah and continues to the present day. The purpose of the Age of the Church is to call out from the people of the nations those whom God has chosen to be members of the Royal Priesthood, the Israel of God.
Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God. (Galatians 6:16 )
The second age will be the Age of the Kingdom. The Age of the Kingdom will begin when the Lord Jesus returns and will continue until the final resurrection of the dead. The purpose of the Age of the Kingdom is to prepare the members of the Royal Priesthood for their eternal reign, and the saved of the nations of the earth for the rule of God and His Christ.
The third age will be the Age of Paradise. It is the time of righteousness, love, peace, and joy for God and His creatures. This world of love and joy will increase forever. It began in the garden in Eden, and then was cut off because of rebellion, as God knew it would be. It will resume as soon as God has His Kingdom fully established and Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
Please consider this fact for a moment. We now are in the Church Age. This means that the people to whom the Spirit of God has made Jesus real must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus.
As it is now, probably most American Christians picture their destiny as going to Heaven when they die and lounging in their mansion. Therefore the concept of setting aside their own life that Christ might live in them is not going to receive serious attention. They have been "saved by grace." Therefore, whether they deny themselves and bear their cross after Jesus, is not really an issue.
This concept, that they are on their way to Heaven by "grace," accounts for the spiritual immaturity of most American Christians. Since Christians are supposed to be the moral light of the world, our nation is on the slippery slope of sexual immorality and dishonesty. Also, God and His Christ are being rejected. The result will be a greatly weakened country.
But there is an even greater problem than this.
The inheritance of the Christian saint is the saved people of the nations. As Christ dwells in God, and we dwell in Christ, so it is true that an inheritance of people will be given to us who will become an essential and eternal part of us. These people are the most valuable of all possible inheritances, barring our inheriting of Christ and God.
Now consider: if our destiny were to be that of reclining on a sofa in a mansion, we would have no inheritance.
As a pastor, I sometimes have asked the Lord about people who are not serious enough about their involvement in our church. Their attendance is sporadic. On several occasions the Lord has said to me, "They are going to lose their inheritance."
The extent of our inheritance depends on our diligence in following Christ. It is not so much by "grace" or by faith but by obedience to Jesus—how diligently and consistently we keep pressing into Him. I cannot emphasize this too strongly.
There is a reward for serving the Lord!
Some reap Christ one hundredfold. Some sixtyfold. Some thirtyfold. How much of Christ we reap depends on how faithful we are in following the Lord—in pursuing the life of victory.
Honestly, it appears to me that hundredfold Christians are few and far between. Most are waiting to die and go to their mansion. The truth is, God has no intention of appointing some to an eternal destiny of resting in their mansion. God insists on a return on His investment, and that return is righteousness, love, joy, and peace in the Spirit of God—the image of Christ, in other words.
God is not satisfied with the fruit being borne today, and so we are facing grievous calamities that are designed to turn us to Christ.
It is God's will that every person who is to be saved to the new world of righteousness reveal in himself or herself the image of the Lord Jesus. The role of the Royal Priesthood is to take charge of the people given to them and help those people attain to the image and role God has appointed to them.
So, as in the case of the Special Forces, the requirements God makes of those who are to inherit people is severe and prolonged. The requirements draw us to the edge of our ability to keep on with the Lord. Yet we must remain trusting and absolutely obedient to Christ. Christ will help us do this.
I am not certain of the destiny of those who almost succeed and then draw back, except that God takes no pleasure in them.
"But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back." But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved. (Hebrews 10:38.39)
Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud." (II Peter 2:22)
Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. (Hebrews 6:7,8)
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15:6)
I guess we must conclude that the elect, whom God is calling out from the people of the nations, are faced with a great challenge. The overcomers shall inherit all things. But those whom God has called to the Royal Priesthood must set their own lives aside and follow the Lord Jesus with all their might. To not do so is to suffer incalculable loss!
As for those who draw back from their election, not only will they lose their inheritance of people, but they may be sent into the outer darkness.
We know that God is loving and patient beyond comprehension. But He has created many people. He will not permit self-willed people to spoil the Paradise He is creating for His obedient children.
Because people do not die, the population of the new earth will continue to increase. People will begin to migrate to the stars. It will require just a short period of time to travel from the new earth to a star. The stars will be lighted by the Glory of Christ, as in the first three days of the creation of the present earth.
The stars will be different colors, chosen by the first people to migrate to that star. Thus the Kingdom of God will continue to increase for eternity.
The role of those who have been called and trained to be the rulers of the Kingdom is to insure that Paradise never again is lost to Mankind.
The first law of the Kingdom of God is strict obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone who will not obey Christ after God's endless dealings with him or her, will reside for eternity in the Lake of Fire.
This is why God warned in the following terms:
And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind. (Isaiah 66:24)
The key thought is, "those who rebelled against me." Most people who have been born into the world have never heard of Christ or the Bible. So their concern will be receiving and obeying Christ after they die, just as was true of those who died in the days of Noah.
I understand the teaching of some ministers today is that if a person has never heard of Christ, he or she will be sent to Hell for not accepting Christ. You know, I do not have the time to argue against such illogic and unrighteous reasoning. I think it is stupid, to tell you the truth.
If our Harry or Elizabeth, that we miss so terribly, terribly much, has been a decent person, has not knowingly or willfully told Christ to "get out of my life" and continued to serve Satan, if he or she has not rejected Christ in this willful manner there is no real danger here.
In order to be preserved among the multitudes in Heaven we just have to have been a reasonably decent person and receive and obey Christ when He is presented to us. It is not that hard to live peacefully in Heaven under the supervision of God's priesthood.
I am sure if the person you are concerned about was a reasonably decent person and did not refuse Christ when Christ was presented to him or her by the Father, there is no cause for worry. And I know from experience that even if an individual does follow his or her fleshly appetites, God has ways of softening the heart and turning the person to Himself.
I am not an easy preacher. By today's standards I am way too hard. But I am here to tell you that God does not enjoy cutting off a person from Himself for eternity.
That can happen, but I do not believe it is very common. Ordinarily when an individual wants nothing to do with Jesus it is because some incident in his or her life has caused a heart-sickness that is not easily healed. But if God sees that what we have here is basically a good person, God will work endlessly to bring that person around to serving the Lord Jesus.
I do not teach "second chance," in which a person flatly turns away from Jesus and then dies and receives Christ. What I am saying is God does what He can to save people, although He is not always successful.
I would suspect that the loved one of yours who has died is not one of those who never will obey Christ no matter what God does. So unless you know the individual is so hard of heart, so bent on sin and self-will, that any kind of turning to Christ is not conceivable, unless that is true I think you are pretty safe in picturing him or her among the multitudes of Heaven who are awaiting the coming of the Kingdom of God to the present earth, or to the new earth.
The reason I have made a distinction between God's heroes of faith and the multitudes who have not been called to such extreme efforts is that the majority of people born on the earth shall, after much training, be permitted to live in peace on the new earth.
It just is not that hard to please God, unless, as I said, you have been called to be part of the elect who are called, chosen, and faithful. Then the requirements are like those of the Navy Special Forces, so to speak.
Your deceased love one is in Paradise right now, waiting to be reunited with you—or may still be in a training institution in the spirit world, being taught the ways of Heaven.
I am not saying or implying that everyone eventually will be reconciled to God. There are people, as Peter wrote, who are as unreasoning animals and will perish.
But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish. (II Peter 2:12)
The Bible is clear enough that not everyone will be saved. But neither is it true that most people will end up in Hell or the Lake of Fire because they did not fit the mold of some religious order.
God did not create the multitudes of mankind for the purpose of sending them to the Lake of Fire to be with Satan, but to love and cherish them as His children. "God so loved the world"!
Yes, you most certainly will be reunited with those loved ones who have gone on ahead of you. They are there waiting for your arrival. And what a day of rejoicing that will be!
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. (Revelation 21:23,24)