You know instantly the problem with that, don't you?
You know instantly the problem with that, don't you?
People would be innocent like Adam and Eve and would fall into temptation again. The members of the Royal Priesthood are being trained night and day to war successfully against the deceits of Satan. When God is satisfied with the maturity of each member of the Priesthood, the new earth will come into being.
Then the new Jerusalem, the home of the Royal Priesthood, will descend to the new earth. The governing priests will bless, teach, and judge the people from the nations of the earth whom God has saved to eternal life.
Remember that for eternity, angels and people shall have wills of their own. Satan himself was perfect until iniquity was found in him. Such a falling away from God can occur in the future by any angel or person.
Even today the Bible urges us to exhort one another to love and good deeds.
Thus it will be the task of the Royal Priesthood to maintain obedience to God forever. The priests of God always will be declaring the need for being reconciled to God. That is our assigned task.
"Forgiveness" is only half of the loaf of the Divine redemption, the beginning of the restoration of that which was robbed from God in the beginning. After being forgiven and the foolish acts of the past covered so as never again to be remembered, it is God's will that every human being be in His moral image and walk humbly with Him.
If we will stop to think about it, unless forgiveness is followed by deliverance, forgiveness is useless. The person will have to be forgiven and forgiven again, perhaps forever. And he or she will give little pleasure to God or to those around them.
The New Testament tells us in several verses that a Day of Redemption, of full restoration, is ahead for those who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit.
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13,14)
We understand from the passage above that we have been sealed with the Spirit of God. The sealing is a down payment until our whole personality has been restored to the ownership of the Lord Jesus.
The restoration includes our body. However, our body cannot be filled with the Spirit of God until the worldliness, the sins of the flesh, and the self-will and disobedience to the Lord Jesus, have been completely removed from us.
A body of eternal life cannot be placed on a personality that still is controlled by unclean spirits. Isn't that so?
Notice carefully the passage below, for it is a key to the understanding that we have to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit if we hope to receive a body of eternal life in the Day of Redemption:
And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you.
So then, brothers, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
All those led by God's Spirit are God's sons. (Romans 8:11-14—HCSB)
If we live according to the lusts of the flesh we will die. This means that in the Day of Redemption the Spirit of God will not bring our mortal body to life. We have sown to the flesh and we shall reap destruction from the flesh.
God's sons always are led by God's Spirit to put to death the sinful urges of the body. If they do not, they will kill their own resurrection.
If I am correct, we Christians realize intuitively that there is no sin, no spiritual uncleanness, in the Kingdom of God. I think that we assume when the Lord comes He will deliver us from all the chains of sin and self-will.
Am I assuming correctly? Do we assume that our being saved means that at some point we will be free from worldliness, the sins of the flesh, and disobedience to God? How could Paradise be restored to the earth if the people are still bound with sin and self-will?
How would you like to live in a Paradise in which the people were still bound with sin and self-will? Have you thought much about that? Have you imagined that when you die you will go to a place where there is no sin or self-will?
What if after we die we are placed with people like ourselves? Would we be pleased with that? You know, the Old Testament Law forbids mixtures. After death, the holy will not be placed with those who have lived according to their fleshly nature.
What passage of Scripture do you base your hope on? Remember, we must base our hope on the Scriptures.
What passage states clearly that if we "accept Christ" we will go to Heaven when we die, where there is no sin, no sorrow, no pain, no worries, only love, joy, and peace?
Do not spend too much time looking. I have never found such a passage. I do not believe there is one passage like this in the whole Bible, except in the Book of Revelation when the new earth is being described.
What, then, does the Bible teach, if it is not that we go to Heaven when we die where there is no sorrow or pain of any kind?
The Scripture teaches us that when we receive Christ we are sealed until the time of restoration.
Whom heaven must receive [and retain] until the time for the complete restoration of all that God spoke by the mouth of all His holy prophets for ages past [from the most ancient time in the memory of man] (Acts 3:21—AMP)
Please note that Heaven must receive Christ, not until all has been restored and Satan has finally been saved, as some teach from their own delusions, but until all that has been spoken by the Prophets has been restored.
What have the Prophets said?
After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. (Hosea 6:2—RSV)
And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. (Ezekiel 37:22-24—RSV)
You may protest that the passage above is written to Israel. Indeed it is, to true, eternal Israel. True eternal Israel is the one Seed of Abraham, that is, all who are of Jesus Christ the Lord.
As far as the two nations becoming one nation is concerned, the two nations are Ephraim and Judah.
Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. (Ezekiel 37:19)
However, by the prophecy of Jacob, Ephraim became not just one nation but many nations.
And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations . (Genesis 48:19)
So we who are members of Gentile nations are included under Ephraim. Thus the elect Gentiles and elect Jews become one stick in God's hand. The two elect groups shall have one eternal King, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David.
What does the Apostle Paul say to Christian people?
And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. (Romans 13:11)
We generally think of our salvation being in the past, don't we? But here we find that our salvation, including deliverance from sin, and also the making alive of our body by the Spirit of God, is in the future.
What does the Apostle Peter say to Christian people?
Who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (I Peter 1:5—NIV)
The second half of the loaf of redemption is being revealed to us. It consists of the removal of our worldliness; the removal of the intelligent but unclean spirits that live in our flesh; and the removal of our desire to control our own life.
The second half includes also a greater fullness of Christ in us than we have known.
The second half of the loaf of redemption includes also the clothing of our person with a house from Heaven that reflects in itself the choices we have made as we have struggled with God.
The second half of the loaf includes the coming of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to sit on the throne of our personality for eternity. This is the greatest inheritance of all, as I am certain you will agree.
A soon as we are wholly at rest in God and conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus, we will receive the remainder of our inheritance, which is saved people from the nations to guide, nourish, and bless. We shall be their priests, their judges, and their rulers.
The greatest inheritance of all is God.
The second greatest inheritance is people.
The third day of redemption has begun with the confessing and removing of our sins and our rebellion against God.
The second half of the loaf of redemption is being revealed to us. It consists of the removal of our worldliness; the removal of the intelligent but unclean spirits that live in our flesh; and the removal of our desire to control our own life.
The third day of redemption includes the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ and His victorious saints to govern the nations of the present earth with the rod of iron righteousness.
The second half includes also a greater fullness of Christ in us than we have known.
The second half of the loaf of redemption includes also the clothing of our person with a house from Heaven that reflects in itself the choices we have made as we have struggled with God.
Now, today, is the time to look to the Spirit of God that He may reveal our chains to us and help us throw them all off, in the name of the Lord Jesus.
If you choose to live in the flesh, you will not attain to the resurrection of life.
Your future resurrection unto life depends on your cooperation with the Holy Spirit right now. We now are in the Day of Redemption. Christ is ready to deliver us from all sin and self-seeking.
You can do it. You can obtain a better resurrection.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:2,3)
However, you will have to seek Christ with all your heart. The dedicated saints before you on whom our nation has been built, left bloody footprints in the snow, so to speak.
Have you been doing all you can to live victoriously?
All who through Christ are overcoming sin on the earth, and those in the spirit world who are living victoriously in the Lord Jesus, will be brought as one to the fullness of God and to immortality in the body?