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<em>Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.</em> (Isaiah 60:5—NIV)

The nations who were not destroyed at the time of the Battle of Armageddon will come to our light, the light of Christ shining forth from within us.

Our sons and daughters will come to us. Then we shall experience joy such as we have never known.

God loves people, but He cannot approach them or communicate with them. Therefore He is preparing Christ—Head and Body—to be a living temple through which He can have fellowship with His creatures. The whole Servant of the Lord, Head and Body, will be Immanuel—God with the nations of the earth.

People are our inheritance, more important than anything except God and His Life. It is in loving relationships with people that we find our reason for being; that we experience total fulfillment. Things, environments, and circumstances are of little worth apart from people.

Now we have God and Christ, the fullness of eternal life, and the inheritance of people. These come first. The final aspect of our inheritance is Paradise.

Paradise

At one time Paradise was on the earth in the form of the Garden of Eden. All that anyone could ask for, a perfect environment, and also the Presence of God Himself, were at one time on the earth in the region now known as the Persian Gulf.

When man sinned, Paradise was drawn up and located in the third heaven, as we understand from the experience of the Apostle Paul. God withdrew and all of nature died. That which had been animate and joyous was now filled with weeds, insects, and every other curse. Man had sold himself to Satan, therefore war, murder, and violence have been the primary characteristic of mankind throughout world history.

But in our heart, perhaps in our subconscious mind, we remember the garden, the Paradise in which we were created. We now refer to it as "Heaven" because that is where God and Paradise are located in the present time.

When we say we want to go to Heaven we mean we want to return to the Paradise which man enjoyed in the beginning. We do not want to pass into the spirit realm as such, because that is the home of the angels. It is not what humans actually desire.

When we think of Heaven, trees, flowers, clear streams come to mind. Above all we desire peace and freedom from dread. Without realizing it we are desiring to return to the Garden of Eden.

Satan understands that the earth is a more desirable environment than the spirit heaven. This is why he came here as soon as the earth was created. This is why Satan walks up and down in the earth, as he informed God when Job became an issue.

We do not want to go to Heaven unless it is to be with God or our loved ones. What we want is the peace and beauty of Eden. Think about it.

Well, Eden shall be restored. The difference now will be that the inhabitants of Eden will be governed by the royal priesthood. Satan will not be permitted to enter.


[[Four Aspects of Our Inheritance 9]]