From dust to Heaven..
From dust to Heaven.
From a living soul to a life-giving spirit.
In Christ we are becoming a new creation, a new kind of humanity.
Adam died on the cross. When Christ was resurrected, a new kind of Life was revealed. We are to count ourselves dead on the cross with Christ so we might begin to live in resurrection life.
This is a total transformation of what we are, and all things of us then will be of God.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (II Corinthians 5:17)
I wonder how long it will be before the Christian ministers begin to preach that our goal is not to bring our soul to Heaven but to change from a living soul to a life-giving spirit.
When we daydream about Heaven, I suppose we think of golden streets and large, ornate mansions. All the people are loving, and friends get together often to have fellowship and talk. I do not know what we will talk about, unless it is to reminisce about what we did on the earth.
No one ever is sick or tired. We will meet friends and relatives we have not seen for many years. Also, there are people we can talk to who were important on the earth, presidents, and all sorts of dignitaries. In Heaven they are not more important than anyone else, we suppose.
There are boys and girls running around and playing hide and seek. Some of the girls are playing hopscotch---if there are boys and girls. It would seem strange if all the children were of neuter gender, wouldn't it.
One of the little "boys" is standing off by himself. He scowls and says, "This isn't any fun playing hide and seek because we can catch anyone we want just by thinking about them."
Jesus comes around once in a while holding a Bible. He greets us warmly. He asks us how we enjoy being in Heaven. We respond politely that it is wonderful.
There are many business-like angels who fly around, doing God's work.
After a while we get bored because there is nothing to do, so we go back into our mansion and lay on our couch. Maybe we dream about the earth when life was more interesting. We need to get accustomed to this sort of life, because we will be living like this for eternity.
How many Christian people daydream about being transformed into a life-giving spirit, and going about bringing eternal life to the spiritually dead people of the nations? But that is a true picture, while the one we have just presented is the mythology that has grown up about what it means to be "saved."
Please keep in mind that my writing is addressed to the members of the Royal Priesthood. They certainly would find the scene above to be boring. God has put it in their heart to work with the Lord Jesus at the task of installing the Kingdom of God on the earth.
But it is a different story for people of the nations who are saved to the new heavens and earth reign of Christ.
The following passage is referring to life on the new earth:
They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. (Isaiah 65:21)
It appears that those who are saved but who are not members of the governing priesthood will pursue their normal occupations. However, it will be a much better life than the present because of the absence of death and other sorrows.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4)
For our soul to be saved means to be changed from its adamic inheritance to a life-giving spirit. I am not certain this is true of those who are not members of the Royal Priesthood. Perhaps they will remain as body, soul, and spirit.
Our life-giving spirit will be clothed with an incorruptible body. As soon as we are filled with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of God, we have experienced the totality of salvation, including the destruction of the last enemy, physical death.
Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14:23)
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (I Corinthians 15:53)
It can be seen easily that if it is true and scriptural that our salvation will be a change from a living soul to a life-giving spirit, and not the bringing of our soul, our adamic personality, to a mansion in Paradise, a change in the conventional Christian preaching is called for.
Next part Notice the following two passages:;