Pope Francis holds up the Gospel as he celebrates a Chrism Mass inside St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, Thursday, March 29, 2018. Francis urged priests on Thursday to be spiritually close to their flocks and not insist on preaching

Pope Francis reportedly claimed Wednesday that there is “no Hell” and condemned souls simply “disappear,” refuting thousands of years of church teaching.

The remarks came during an interview with the pontiff’s longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, founder of the liberal Italian newspaper La Repubblica. The interview was translated by the respected website Rorate Caeli.

Mr. Scalfari asked Francis where condemned souls go to suffer for eternity.

“They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him,” Francis said in response, “but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms “the existence of hell and its eternity.”

“Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, ‘eternal fire,’” the Catechism states. “The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.”

After the pope’s remarks garnered worldwide attention, the Vatican released a statement refuting the reliability of the interview.“The Holy Father Francis recently received the founder of the newspaper La Repubblica in a private meeting on the occasion of Easter, without however giving him any interviews,” the Vatican said. “What is reported by the author in today’s article is the result of his reconstruction, in which the textual words pronounced by the Pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.”

Source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/29/pope-francis-reportedly-claims-there-no-hell/

The post Pope Francis reportedly claims ‘there is no Hell’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

For over 47 years, I have been offering a certified cashier’s check for $10,000 to anyone in my radio or television  audiences who can show me any of the following phrases out of the King James  Bible: “The immortality of the soul,” “I have an immortal soul,” “When we die we  go to heaven,” “When sinners die they go to an ever-burning hell fire.”

In that span of time, there have been a few (probably fewer than a  dozen in over 47 years) who have attempted to claim the check.

However, never have any of the would-be claimants shown me any such  “scriptures” in the King James Bible, for they simply are not THERE!

Instead, they have shown me other substitute scriptures which have appeared to them to indicate that man does indeed have an immortal soul; that those souls go either to heaven or to hell when the body dies!

Surely, one of the favorite texts used as “proof” is found in Luke 16, in the parable of “Lazarus and the rich man.”

Get your own Bible, and read the parable thoroughly. For the sake of  those who may not have a Bible close at hand, the entire parable is now printed here:

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

“And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate  full of sores,

“And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar  off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

“And he cried and said, father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am  tormented in this flame.

“But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou  art tormented.

“And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us,  that would come from thence.

“Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to  my father’s house:

“For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

“Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

“And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

“And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:19-31).

I have shown you the entire parable of “Lazarus and the rich man” in Luke 16, verses 19 through 31, in order that you may refer back to it  again and again as you read the remainder of this booklet.

Notice What the Parable DOES NOT SAY

Turn again to verse 22, and notice that the parable does not say that Lazarus was carried into HEAVEN! Rather, it says he was “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” Because many have assumed Abraham to be in heaven, they think the expression “Abraham’s bosom” means heaven. But it does not, as we shall see clearly proved.

Notice that the parable does not say that the rich man went  to an ever-burning hell fire! The Greek word which is used is hades, which always means the GRAVE, as you will  see thoroughly explained.

Notice that the parable says “the beggar DIED” It does not say that only his body died but that his “soul” continued to live on.

The parable says “. . . the rich man also DIED” and does NOT say that only  the rich man’s body died, and that his “soul” lived on in torment!

Now, with the necessary interruptions in order to supply ample biblical PROOFS so you can truly come to understand this parable, let us carefully  peruse the entire parable.

What Is a Parable?

Jesus continually spoke in parables. A parable is an analogy–a  simile, representation or analogous story; which could even be a fable, so long as it is used to illustrate certain essential points of TRUTH. An analogy is not necessarily the truth all by itself–but is  analogous to the TRUTH which it helps to illustrate.

For example, in modern English, one might wish to draw the analogy that God’s Holy Spirit flows in and through converted Christians not unlike an electrical current flows through a light bulb.

We are the light bulbs; and, just as an incandescent bulb only glows when the filament is brightly lit up by the ongoing, circuitous FLOW of electrical energy, and is only going to be brilliantly lit when the switch is in the “on” position; so we, as Christians, will only give out our light when we are  connected to God the Father through the conduit which is  Jesus Christ!

The foregoing is a fair example of an analogy.

God’s Spirit is certainly not electricity; we are certainly not light bulbs; Jesus Christ is certainly not a conduit. Yet, this representative story helps us to understand a spiritual mystery–how Almighty God, through the power of His Holy Spirit, can literally empower, enliven,  ennoble and brilliantly vivify us human beings, transforming us into His own sons and daughters.

The disciples were curious as to why Jesus spoke to the public in confusing parables. Many have assumed Jesus spoke in such puzzles to “make His meaning plainer”! The exact opposite is true.

“And the disciples came, and said unto Him, why speakest thou unto them in  parables?

“He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

“And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

“For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

“For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them” (Matthew 13:10-18). Astonishing! Jesus Christ clearly shows that only those whom God has specially called and chosen can understand! He shows that He was NOT trying to convert the world then; that people were blinded to the truth “LEST they should be converted and He should heal them!” This flies directly in the face of a commonly accepted fable; that Christ tried to call and convert as many as He could!

Notice that the carnal-minded Pharisees and others in His audience were not  privileged to understand.

How it would SHOCK millions of people if they knew that, even to this time in this modern, 20th century, Jesus Christ is STILL not attempting to reveal  the truth of God to the MAJORITY!

It is quite obvious from the context that the story of Lazarus and the rich  man is in fact a parable! Therefore, it was intended to cloud and confuse its true meaning to the carnal minded, rebellious, hostile Pharisees — and it is intended to be confusing to carnal minded, anti-law people today! If you are a person who is hostile to God’s Ten Commandments; who places himself above the Bible, the chances are you will NOT agree with the TRUTH explained in this booklet; that you will not accept the true meaning of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man!

Even if, people argue, there really was such a person as the rich man  and Lazarus (and we will assume they truly were real people for the purposes of this article), it makes no difference whatever to the SENSE; the  MEANING of what Jesus was conveying.

Now, refer back to the parable and read the description of the poor beggar named Lazarus, filled with sores, lying at his gate, desperately hoping merely for crumbs from the rich  man’s table–the dogs licking his open, running wounds, until he died!

“And it came to pass, that the beggar DIED” (Luke 16:22).

What Is Death–What HAPPENED When the Beggar Died?

Your Bible says the beggar DIED! What happened when he died?

Let the Bible answer!

God told Adam that in the day he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would “surely DIE”! (Genesis 2:17). Later, Satan the devil lied  to the woman and said, “You shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4), which is the first recorded instance of Satan’s attempt to deceive the human race by convincing them they have an immortal soul which will never  die.

But God said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou  return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust  thou art, and unto DUST [dirt, soil, earth] shalt THOU return”! (Genesis  3:19).

God told Adam, the conscious man, that Adam would return  to DUST! He did not tell Adam only his body would become corrupted and  return to dust–that his “soul” would live on–he told ADAM, the conscious man, that HE would return unto the dirt of the ground from which he was formed!

Notice what God inspired Solomon to write: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one DIETH, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath, so that a man  hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

“All go unto one place; all are OF the DUST and all turn to  dust again!” (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20).

Here, God makes it plain that the temporal physical existence of animal life and human life are the same.

Both man and beast are kept alive by the circulation of the bloodstream; as life-giving oxygen is carried to the body by the beating of the heart, and the human (and animal) circulatory system!

God says, “And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.

“For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off” (Leviticus 17:13, 14).

Jesus Christ of Nazareth died for the sins of mankind on  the stake! He died because of the shedding of HIS BLOOD! It is the shed BLOOD of Jesus Christ which atones for the sins of mankind. Christ’s death was typified by the slaying of the Paschal lamb at the Passover. The lamb was slain by having its throat cut, and shedding its blood into a basin, which was then painted on the window sills and doors of the Israelites’ homes. Today, you and I can have forgiveness of sins only through the BLOOD of Jesus Christ, which depicts His LIFE which was offered in our place!

Will you believe Jesus Christ? He said, “I am He that liveth, and was DEAD;  and, behold, I am alive forevermore . . .” (Revelation 1:18).

There are many who do not believe that Jesus was truly DEAD, but think He was IN HELL, preaching to lost souls! For a clear understanding of this horribly false teaching, call or write for my brochure about the “spirits in prison.”

Jesus’ side was pierced, the fluids of the stomach, plus His life’s  blood, came pouring out! It is by the shed blood of Jesus Christ that our sins  may be forgiven!

“Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3) by the shedding of His  blood!

Remember, the Bible plainly says the beggar, Lazarus, DIED! When he died, he was DEAD, not conscious, not alive!

Notice what God inspired David to write about the state of the dead. “. . . In death there is no remembrance of thee [God]: in the grave [Hebrew sheol] who  shall give thee thanks?” (Psalms 6:5). “. . . Man being in honor abideth not: he  is like the beasts that PERISH . . . like sheep they are laid in the grave [Hebrew sheol]; death shall feed upon them . . . their beauty shall consume in  the grave from their dwelling” (Psalms 49:12-14).

“Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that PERISH”  (Psalms 49:20).

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day HIS  THOUGHTS PERISH!” (Psalms 146:3, 4).

What, then, does the Bible say about the state of the dead? It says the same thing any medical doctor could tell you; any coroner, paramedic, registered  nurse or student qualified to give first aid! It says the dead are completely dead; not conscious; have no memory; cannot praise God; that they are slowly returning to the earth, just as God warned Adam and Eve! Your Bible is clinically correct concerning the state of the dead!

Scientists know that when all brain activity has ceased; when the heart has stopped pumping and the circulation of the life-giving blood has ceased, a human  being (or any animal) is DEAD!

They also know that the dead are completely UNCONSCIOUS; that total oblivion  is the result!

God says, “For the living know that they shall die: but the DEAD KNOW NOT ANYTHING . . . for the memory of them [their memory] is forgotten”!

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no  work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave [Hebrew sheol], whither thou goest”! (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10).

So what happened to Lazarus?

He DIED!

In the instant he died all of his thoughts ceased! His body began to decay, gradually decomposed, and returned to the dust of the earth. Now, turn again to the parable at the beginning of this article. Notice, “. . .And [Lazarus] was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke  16:22).

But WHEN? How? WHERE was Lazarus carried? 

What Is “Abraham’s Bosom”?

The word bosom is used 41 times in the Bible and always means the same thing–the area of the chest or breast of the human being. For example, a man’s  wife is spoken of as “the wife of thy bosom” (Deuteronomy 13:16), indicating a  close, loving, personal relationship.

Notice, too, in the famous “last supper” of Jesus Christ, that John was leaning on Jesus’ bosom (John 13:23), which was indicative of the close,  personal relationship that existed between Jesus and John, for John was mentioned in the Bible as that disciple “whom Jesus loved.”

Therefore, when the parable mentions Lazarus being “carried by the angels” into “Abraham’s bosom,” it means carried into a close, loving, personal relationship WITH ABRAHAM!

But WHERE Is Abraham?

Is Abraham in heaven? Is this merely another way in which the Bible is trying to tell you that Lazarus did, after all, “go to heaven”?

Remember, Jesus said, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). He said this during His earthly ministry, CENTURIES after Abraham had died! In plain language, this scripture — a first-person quotation from Christ Himself, tells us ABRAHAM WAS NOT IN HEAVEN! David, a man after God’s own heart, and the king of Israel who is prophesied to be  resurrected and to yet become the KING over all Israel even during the  millennial reign of Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 30:9), is NOT in heaven!

Notice the proof in your own Bible! “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch  David, that he is both DEAD and BURIED, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day” said Peter on the day of Pentecost. But some might argue, “Yes, maybe DAVID was dead and buried; maybe HIS BODY died, but DAVID HIMSELF surely went to heaven, didn’t he?”

The answer is NO, he did not! Only a few verses later, you read that Peter said, “FOR DAVID IS NOT ASCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS ” (Acts 2:29-34).

Here, in Peter’s own words, during his famous sermon on the day of Pentecost,  when God sent the Holy Spirit to build His church, we are given the absolute, PLAIN, unambiguous, positive statement that David is DEAD! We are told that he has been BURIED; and we have learned from his own psalms (as God inspired him to sing and write them) and from other scriptures what happens when one is dead and buried! David’s flesh gradually decayed–he returned unto “the dust” from which  he came! His death was exactly like that of animals; he is completely  unconscious, in OBLIVION– and, furthermore, the apostle Peter tells us that David DID NOT GO INTO HEAVEN! Are you willing to BELIEVE your own Bible? It does not matter if these plain scriptures contradict what you have been taught all your life; what you have heard from others! The Word of God is SURE! It will JUDGE each one of us, and is judging us today!

Now, what of Abraham?

“And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred three score and fifteen years.

“Then Abraham gave up the ghost [an old King James English expression which means ‘expired’; or breathed his last breath] and DIED in a good old age, an old  man, and full of years; and was gathered unto his people.

“And his sons Isaac and Ishmael BURIED him in the cave of Machpelah . . .”  (Genesis 25:7-9).

In the famous faith chapter God’s Word says, “These all DIED in  faith, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES” (Hebrews 11:13). “These” who died include ABRAHAM!

Notice verse 8: “By faith ABRAHAM, when he was called to go into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not  knowing whither he went . . .” Then, just five verses later, the Bible plainly says Abraham, together with all others mentioned in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, including Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and many, many more,  DIED!

What was the “promise” Abraham did not YET inherit? Why, the promise of  ETERNAL LIFE! Almighty God promised Abraham the very KINGDOM OF GOD! Yet,  concerning not only Abraham, but others of the most noteworthy men and women in  the entire Bible, God says, “And these ALL, having obtained a good report  through faith, RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE” (Hebrews 11:39). Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees, “You shall SEE Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out!” But Abraham is NOT YET in the kingdom! Today, he is unconscious; utterly oblivious to the passing of time.

Neither David nor Abraham is in heaven! Job said, “. . . Man DIETH, and  wasteth away: Yea, man giveth up the ghost [expires, or breathes his last  breath!] and where is he? . . . O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that  thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest  appoint me a set time, and remember me.

“If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I  wait, till my CHANGE come!

“Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work  of thine hands”! (Job 14:10-15).

Like Job, Abraham is waiting–as is David and all the other patriarchs and  famous men and women of the Bible–until his CHANGE comes!

WHEN will that change come? Let the inspired Word of God answer! “For as in  Adam all die [just as Lazarus DIED!], even so in Christ shall all be made alive  [they are NOT ALIVE, now].

“But every man in his own order [meaning at the appropriate TIME]: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are CHRIST’S AT HIS COMING”! (1 Corinthians 15:22, 23).

Is there anything about the words “first” and “afterward” you do not understand? If a parent says to a child, “You must eat your vegetables FIRST, and then AFTERWARD you may have dessert,” even the child understands! Christ was resurrected to become the FIRSTfruits from ALL OF THE DEAD, including Abraham and David! AFTERWARD, as Paul clearly explained, Abraham, David, all the righteous patriarchs and the righteous will be resurrected.

WHEN are the dead resurrected? At the second coming of Christ–“at His  coming”! –and not one instant before!

Read the entire 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. Notice particularly verses 49  through 53: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy [we are flesh, made of  the dust, and to the dust shall we return] we shall also bear the image of the  heavenly.

“This I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of  God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [meaning die], but we  shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the DEAD [including Lazarus, Abraham and David!] shall be raised incorruptible, and we [the living who remain at that  time] shall be changed!

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on  immortality.

“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal  shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is  written, death is swallowed up in victory”! Notice the Bible says immortality is  something we human, mortal beings must “PUT ON” at the time of the resurrection  of the dead, or the time of instantaneous change, at the LAST TRUMP!

Now, back to our parable concerning Lazarus.

We have found that Abraham is DEAD. Yet we know that Abraham is as good as INSIDE the Kingdom of God–waiting only until the TIME of his resurrection!

Jesus said, “And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west,  and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of  heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

This is the same Jesus Christ who, during this same earthly ministry, said,  plainly, “NO MAN HATH ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN”! Jesus spoke of Abraham as dead, together with all the other patriarchs; waiting in the grave, until the RESURRECTION!

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the  graves shall hear His voice,

“And shall come forth; they that have done GOOD [including Abraham, and  Lazarus] unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil [including the rich man], unto the resurrection of damnation [judgment]” (John 5:28,  29).

Jesus taught the fact of the RESURRECTION of the dead! Notice! “And many of  them that sleep [they are completely oblivious, unconscious of the passage of  time] in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some  to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).

Remember what you read about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15? Christ is  called the “first fruits” from the DEAD! It is only afterward, AT HIS COMING,  and not one split second before, that the “dead in Christ,” which include all  the righteous patriarchs; men such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David–yes, and even  the poor beggar Lazarus–will be raised from the dead!

The many PLAIN, incontrovertible statements of Jesus Christ concerning the future event of the resurrection of the DEAD cannot be swept aside as if they do  not exist by what is admittedly a parable, or a puzzle, which Jesus used to deliberately confuse many of those who heard!

So–WHEN will Lazarus actually be taken into Abraham’s bosom?

At the time of the resurrection of the righteous–at the sound of the last  trump, and not one second before!

WHERE will he be? Why, he will be in “Abraham’s bosom”!

And where will Abraham be? Jesus already told us, but notice another quote: “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and  Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, and you yourself  thrust out.

“And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28, 29).  Again, Jesus warned the evil Pharisees of the yet future event of the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth, and said they would SEE  Abraham in that Kingdom, and they themselves cast out!

Lazarus will be among the many who will come from the four corners of the earth to “sit down in the kingdom.” The rich man will be in the category of the  Pharisees, gnashing his teeth in fear, anger and frustration, yet seeing Lazarus “in Abraham’s bosom,” meaning in the KINGDOM OF GOD!

Jesus couched the language of Luke 16 in the past, present and future! He  made no differentiation, choosing to relate the story (which will actually transpire over the course of thousands of years) as if an unbroken story for the purposes of the great warning, the LESSON, it contained!

Now, notice again the parable. “And it came to pass, that the beggar died,  and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom . . .”

How is Lazarus finally “carried” into the bosom of Abraham; where the rich man sees him as if seated at a great banquet?

We have learned that Lazarus cannot “see” anything while he is in the grave!  He is not conscious; unable to praise God, has no memory, but is in complete oblivion.

He is one of those who “sleep in the dust of the earth” (Daniel 12:2) and will not be resurrected until the resurrection to DAMNATION! Notice, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

“And death and hell [hades, meaning “the grave”] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:13-15). It is this final and THIRD resurrection in which the rich man finds himself! There are THREE resurrections depicted in scripture.

Notice what Jesus said!

“. . . Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall  all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in  the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall  gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other . . .” (Matthew 24:30, 31).

Jesus is coming back to this earth.

“. . .Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus,  which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so COME in like manner as you have  seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

And how did they see Him go? They saw him slowly ascending up into the  clouds, until He was received completely out of their sight.

Here, in the first inspired message to ever come back down to earth after Christ was taken away from the earth, the biblical promise is given that is  repeated over and over again in the Word of God: “HE IS COMING AGAIN!”

Few realize that, if the earth were shrunken to the approximate size of a desk-sized globe, the mantle of air which surrounds our earth and is part of its physical characteristics (atmosphere, lithosphere, bathysphere) would be thinner  than the lacquer finish on the globe!

I use that analogy to illustrate the point that, when Christ comes again, He  is coming all the way down out of heaven, down inside the Milky Way galaxy, past the outermost planets, our sun and moon,  and to the very surface of this earth where the clouds form! He is coming TO THE EARTH, and not merely coming NEAR it! “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south” (Zechariah 14:4).

“Behold He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him…” (Revelation  1:7).

Notice how the saints are caught up, even as Jesus explained that Lazarus  will someday be caught up by the ANGELS!

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice  of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise FIRST:

“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in  the CLOUDS, to meet the Lord in the air: And so shall we ever BE with the Lord”!  (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17).

See how all of these important scriptures fit perfectly together? It is at  the last trump; with the voice of the archangel; as Jesus Christ of Nazareth  comes down to this earth WITH CLOUDS!

He sends His angels to the four corners of the earth, and they gather the elect, living and dead, to the central place of His arrival!

From that time on, they will “ever be with the Lord”!

But where will the Lord BE?

On this earth as you read above.

The 14th chapter of Zechariah describes the second coming of Jesus Christ,  the establishment of Jesus as “King over all the earth” (verse 9), the beginning  of the millennial reign of Christ on this earth, and His first edict to all the families of the earth, to come to the new capital of the world, Jerusalem, to  keep the Feast of Tabernacles! (Read the entire 14th chapter of Zechariah.)

Notice too: ” Thou wast slain, and hath redeemed us to God by thy blood out  of every kindred, and tongue and people, and nation;

“And hath made us unto our God kings and priests: and we SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH”! (Revelation 5:10).

So WHERE does Lazarus go? He is caught up and taken to Jerusalem, to meet Jesus Christ in the air, in the clouds of this earth’s atmosphere, at His second coming.

How is he carried there? By the angels.

And will he see Abraham there–in the Kingdom of God, just as he will see David, many of the other patriarchs, righteous prophets and famous men of the  Bible past and present?

Of course! Jesus said so! He will be leaning on Abraham’s bosom, in a close, intimate relationship with Abraham, who is called the “father of the faithful.”

And WHEN does all this happen?

According to the inspired Word of God, which will judge us, the  resurrection of Lazarus will occur “at the  last trump,” “at the voice of the archangel,” and precisely at the time of the second coming of Christ!

Now, continue with the parable. 

What Happened to the Rich Man?

“. . . The rich man also DIED, and was buried . . .” (Luke 16:22).

Surely there is no need to return to all of the scriptures we have quoted explaining the state of the dead. Read each scripture quoted above once more, if you need your memory refreshed about what happens when one dies.

Your Bible does NOT say only the rich man’s “body” died–but that the rich man  went to some other place!

It says, plainly, “. . . the rich man DIED”!

And what happens when people die? Just as Abraham was buried, and decayed long ago; just as David’s “sepulchre is with us unto this day,” and as David is not in the heavens (Acts 2:34) but is waiting in the grave for the time of the  second coming of Christ and the resurrection, so, likewise, the rich man is  dead, completely unconscious; oblivious to the passing of time; is buried and waiting in his GRAVE!

Notice: “And in hell [Greek hades] he lift up his eyes . . .” There are three Greek words used in the New Testament which are translated “hell.”

The most common is hades, which means, literally, the grave. Search the exhaustive concordances, the lexicons, the diaglotts,  other translations, the Greek  interlinear or any other Bible help, and you will find substantial PROOF that the Greek word hades NEVER has anything whatsoever to do with fires or infernal regions.

Rather, it is always used as the exact Greek counterpart of the Hebrew sheol, which means THE GRAVE! (See Bullinger’s Companion Bible, appendix 131.) It should never have been translated “hell” in the English language in 1611, but should have been rendered “the grave” which is its true meaning.

The second Greek word which is rendered as “hell” in English Bibles is Gehenna, or Geenna. The word Gehenna is derived from the “sons of Hinnom,” who, anciently owned a steep, precipitous  valley in the immediate environs of Jerusalem. During Jesus’ day, the valley became a public dump, a place of refuse, and even the bodies of condemned criminals or dead animals were deposited there. Such bodies would be shoved over  the edge, together with refuse, trash and garbage, to gradually decompose and to  eventually be completely consumed by perpetually burning fires.

When Jesus spoke of Gehenna fire, He was using the analogy of the Valley of  Hinnom to portray the literal HELL FIRE spoken of in 2 Peter 3. Notice. “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men … The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are  therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:7-13). This does not say the “works” of the earth, meaning evil men, are continually burning; being tortured in an “ever burning” hell! It says they are BURNED UP!

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud  [including the rich man], yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: And the day that cometh shall burn them up: saith the Eternal of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch and ye shall tread down the wicked,  for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Eternal of Hosts” (Malachi 4:1-3). Yes, the Bible DOES speak of  burning FIRE as punishment for the wicked! But that fire is not burning  now–nor is it an “eternal fire” burning forever and ever!

Notice additional proof.

“. . . Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving  themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for  an example, suffering the VENGEANCE OF ETERNAL FIRE” (Jude 7).

Jesus said, “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and  brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all”! (Luke 17:29).

Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth as an example of that final punishment which  is to come upon the wicked–being consumed by FIRE; completely dissolved and  turned to ashes! Even as the last verses of Malachi and the final verses of  Isaiah tell us, the wicked (such as the rich man, who sees a wall of fire  approaching him) are to suffer the vengeance of GEHENNA FIRE! That fire will  consume them. It will burn them up. They will be turned into ashes! They are  then dead; dead for all eternity, from which there is never any  resurrection.

Notice. “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly . . .” (2 Peter 2:6).

Though Sodom and Gomorrah are said to have suffered the “vengeance of eternal  fire,” it begs  the question, “Are they still burning?”

Of course not! As a matter of fact, many Bible scholars believe that the ancient foundation  stones of Sodom and Gomorrah have been found. Where? Buried beneath the waters  at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea!

Not only did the fire and brimstone from God go out after it had finished  consuming all of the people, and other combustible and flammable material in  ancient Sodom and Gomorrah–not only has that fire been out for centuries and  centuries–apparently the very site of those two ancient cities has been buried  for these many millennia beneath water! The fire was from “the Eternal,” but was  not to burn for all eternity! It WENT OUT after it had consumed all the fuel upon which it fed.

Surely, suffering death by fire is one of the most horrifying and  excruciating ways to DIE! Almighty God’s punishments are indeed horrifying to contemplate! Yet, God is a merciful God, and has decreed that the wicked are to  be burned up — NOT kept alive in fiendish torture, burning, burning, burning but never quite burning up, as the satanic, false doctrines of so many churches teach!

Now, WHEN will the rich man “lift up his eyes”?

The Rest of the Dead

Actually, there are three categories of the dead.

So far, we have learned about “the dead in Christ.” These are obviously converted Christians who have been convicted; who have repented of their sins, received water baptism (Romans 6), and had the laying on of hands for the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

Whether they were martyred (as was Stephen, James, the brother of John, the apostle Paul and others) or simply died of old age (as we believe John the apostle did), they are, like David, Abraham and Lazarus, in their graves, awaiting the resurrection to life at the second coming of Christ.

We have seen (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17) in a number of scriptures that the dead  in Christ will rise FIRST, at the very instant of the sounding of the last  trump, at the second coming of Christ! They will not “precede” those who are  alive and remain, who will be changed instantaneously, “in a moment, in the  twinkling of an eye, at the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

The first category of the dead, then, consists of the “dead in Christ.”

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. . . and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation  20:4).

The dead in Christ, who are to be resurrected at His second coming, will  become a part of the governing, ruling body of Jesus Christ–the very Kingdom and  government of God–during the thousand-year reign of Christ as King of Kings and  Lord of Lords over the entire world.

But, what of the literally hundreds of millions who have never heard the truth of God; never once heard the gospel of Christ, perhaps never even heard the name of Jesus Christ?

Of them the Bible says, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the  thousand years were finished”! (Revelation 20:5). The “rest of the dead” consists of the overwhelming MAJORITY of all mankind. Not only all those who have never heard, but also those who heard, but DID NOT UNDERSTAND, as Christ said, giving the reason for His parables! If God did not GIVE them understanding, they were NOT CALLED!

At the end of the millennial reign of Christ, a great, general resurrection  is said to occur. John sees this monumental event in vision when he writes, “And  I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth  and the heaven fled away: And there was found no place for them.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to  their works” (Revelation 20:11, 12).

There is strong indication that each of these individuals, no matter what his age when he died– whether 90 years or 9 months–will be granted a lifetime of one hundred years’ duration.

Notice. “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old: but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed”! (Isaiah 65:20).

This is strong indication that not only will there be a 100-year period  following the millennium, but that the average life span during the millennium will be 100 years! The Bible seems to be telling us that, having had the opportunity of living in the physical, human state for 100 full years under the very government of the Kingdom of God, if a person is STILL a sinner and has  refused to repent for all that time, the “sinner being an hundred years old  shall be accursed”!

This is the Word of God, after all, and it appears we are seeing a revelation  of the heavenly pattern involving the human life span from the time of the  millennium to the consummation of the first stage of God’s great plan; reproducing after His own kind.

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16 is not describing to us a rich man who was ignorant, and who never had a chance for salvation! Instead, it is describing a heartless, cruel, selfish man; one who had no compassion or pity; who stuffed his own face while utterly ignoring the poor, emaciated, sick and starving beggar at his doorstep!

The inference is that the rich man may well be among the incorrigibly wicked, who would not hear during his human, physical life.

Look at the description of what the rich man immediately sees when he is  finally resurrected!

“And in [the grave] he lift up his eyes, BEING IN TORMENTS, and seeth Abraham  afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

“And he cried and said, father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:23, 24).

In order to clear up widespread misunderstanding of the parable,  we must go to many other scriptures, equally inspired, many of them direct quotations from Jesus Christ Himself, to understand the whole truth of exactly WHEN the rich man “lift up his eyes, BEING IN TORMENTS…”

You have already seen documented proof concerning the first resurrection–the  resurrection of “the dead IN CHRIST” who come out of their graves at the last trump, coincident with the exact moment of the second coming of Christ.

Also, you have seen biblical evidence concerning the “great white throne  judgment” (Revelation 20) wherein “the rest of the dead” who “lived not until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:25) come up for an approximate life span of 100 years, during which they shall be judged!

Judging Is Not Sentencing

The traditional Protestant-Catholic view of “judgment” is like the childhood picture painted from thousands of pulpits by eager pastors. Many believe judgment day consists of millions slowly approaching a huge judgment bench.  Seated behind the bench is a grandfather-like Figure, God the Father, who has a  gavel in His hand. Apparently, Satan the devil is at the left hand to accuse,  while Christ is at the right hand of the righteous Judge to appeal as a counsel for the defense.  Angels, according to this myth, open up huge ledgers in which are actually written all of the evil deeds done by each individual.

Finally, after hearing all the evidence, the Judge pounds the gavel on the bench, and pronounces the person before the judgment seat either “innocent” or  “guilty” If guilty, the myth teaches that the impenitent sinner is plummeted  immediately down to hell fire, accompanied by cackles of glee of Satan, and wails from the righteous.

If “innocent,” the penitent sinner is immediately sent to heaven!

This childish, purely mythological, fanciful and FALSE notion is pure  applesauce, nonsense, and ridiculous!

Many people confuse “judgment” with sentencing.

Think. God has plainly said (read the entire 11th chapter of Romans) that  “all Israel shall be saved.” That certainly includes the Jews, and those of the tribe of Levi, who basically have remained anti-Christian–who rejected Christ in  the first century, and whose progeny, down through the nearly 2,000 years since,  have rigidly adhered to the traditions established by their fathers, utterly and  totally rejecting Christ as Savior!

Yet the Bible plainly says that all of these shall YET, in the future, be  SAVED!

How?

You have already read the answer. They are included among that vast, general  majority of all humanity (the “rest of the dead” who lived not again until the  thousand years are finished) who come up in the great general resurrection–the resurrection to JUDGMENT!

It is a resurrection, not to a sentencing, resulting from deeds already done during their lifetimes, but a resurrection to judgment.

Remember, judgment is not a SENTENCING. Judgment takes place during an entire lifetime.

Notice. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God  [the church]; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that  obey not the gospel of God?

“And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the  sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17, 18).

Every member of God’s true church is being judged, daily!

Judgment is a process. Jesus said, “To him that overcometh” He will grant salvation; sitting with Him in His throne, wielding power over the nations! (Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:21). Overcoming is a life-long process!

Even Jesus Christ “. . . learned obedience by the things which He suffered; . . . being made perfect . . .” (Hebrews 5:8, 9).

The Bible absolutely proves that the process of judgment takes place over the  entire life span of a Christian! The church is being judged, daily. You and I are  being judged, daily!

“The Rest of the Dead”

Who are the “rest of the dead”?

They are all other human beings who have ever lived and died who (1) were never converted; never had an opportunity for salvation; perhaps never even  heard the name of Jesus Christ; they are NOT among the “dead in Christ.” This means they are the vast majority of all mankind.

(2) They have not committed the unpardonable sin! This great truth–so simply  and unerringly revealed in the Bible–is nevertheless concealed from the MILLIONS in professing “churchianity” today. The bulk of the mainstream Protestant, evangelical  churches, holding to the pagan doctrines of the immortality of the soul, are BLINDED to this truth! The mainstream fundamentalist churches seemingly believe  that all Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Southeast Asians, the Indians (in India),  the bulk of all Africans and countless other human beings are going to go  immediately to an ever-burning hell when they die–even though they have never  had an opportunity for salvation–literally never heard the name of Jesus Christ! This ghastly, inhuman picture of unrelenting TORTURE is preached every day of the SUN in thousands of churches! It is A LIE!

You have seen vivid PROOF that God, in His infinite mercy, will DESTROY unrepentant sinners, but HE WILL NOT TORTURE THEM FOR ETERNITY! God may be “inhuman,” but He is not “inhumane!”

Strangely, instead of accepting this precious truth with alacrity and  joy–being vastly relieved that these hundreds of millions of hapless human  beings who have known only a lifetime of sickness, squalor and disease are NOT going immediately into the torments of hell, cynical evangelicals here and there  scoff and sneer at this precious truth of God, and refuse to accept it! They shall bear the consequences of their own stiff-necked, hard heartedness.

The vast majority of all humankind represent the “rest of the dead”  spoken of in Revelation 20 and verse 5.

Notice that they “lived not again until the thousand years were  finished.”

Later, in this same vision, John said he saw “. . . a great white throne, and  him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away [a  metaphorical statement] and there was found no place for them.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was open, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their  works” (Revelation 20:11, 12).

Now, WHAT is the standard by which God judges us? What code, what set of  laws, what standards of living, what mores, what pattern of life has God set down by which He judges us?

Jesus said, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into  the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in  heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Jesus said, plainly, “Man shall not live by bread alone,  but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

Jesus said, “Thy word is TRUTH”! (John 17:17). So what is the set of  regulations or standards God will use to judge His church?

Why, the BIBLE!

The word “Bible” is the English version of the Greek word biblos. Biblos in the Greek is a plural word which literally means “BOOKS.”  Transliterated, the expression “Holy Bible” should read “Holy BOOKS.” The books of the Bible, containing the laws, statutes, judgments; the historical and prophetical books; the gospels of Jesus Christ; the epistles of the apostles–the whole Bible–is  being used, daily, to JUDGE God’s church, and each of us individually!

Remember, God says, “For I am the Eternal, I CHANGE NOT’! (Malachi 3:6) and tells us that “Jesus Christ [is] THE SAME yesterday, and today, and forever”  (Hebrews 13:8).

Will God use some different standard to JUDGE this great host of  multiple MILLIONS of human beings in the great white throne judgment–the second  resurrection?

No! He does not change–He remains the same. Therefore, the virtually  innumerable dead who will come up “when the thousand years are finished” will be JUDGED out of the same “books” (biblos–meaning the BIBLE) that God has used, and  is using, to JUDGE His church today!

It is obvious then, that a period of time, after the millennium, will extend for 100 years (Isaiah 65:20). These hundreds of millions of human beings will be completely unaware of the passage of time! So far as their minds and memories are concerned, the difference between the moment their consciousness ceased at the moment of their deaths and the time of their resurrection is less than the batting of an eyelash; the “twinkling of an eye.”

They will be totally unaware of the lapse of ANY time! Remember, “The dead  know not anything”!

But is the rich man in our parable included among this group?

No, of course not!

Remember, at the time setting of the rich man’s resurrection he “. . . lift  up his eyes, being in torments” (Luke 16:23).

The rich man is obviously facing imminent death by FIRE!

The Third Resurrection

Believe it or not, your Bible absolutely proves there are THREE  resurrections! If you have not heard my sermon tapes which thoroughly expound this little-known truth, call or write for them immediately. They are entitled “Resurrection I and II.”

Think about it. The FIRST resurrection (God says, “Blessed and holy is he  that hath part in the first resurrection” –Revelation 20:6) takes place precisely at the instant of Christ’s second coming!

The “rest of the dead” who “lived not again until the thousand years were finished” come up in the great, general resurrection, spoken of as “the great white throne judgment” in the Bible.

But there is one category of the DEAD we have omitted!

Who are these? Notice this prophecy.

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his  prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters  of the earth [notice, there are still human, physical NATIONS on this earth, at some indeterminate time after the millennium!], Gog and Magog [all Bible  commentators unanimously agree this is a spiritual term, obviously implying the incorrigibly wicked] to gather them together to BATTLE: the number of whom is as  the sand of sea.

“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, encompassed the camp of the  saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them [they are destroyed by FIRE].

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and  brimstone, where the beast and false prophet [WERE CAST] and shall be tormented  day and night forever and ever”! (Revelation 20:7-10). The word “are” is italicized, indicating that the translators supplied it.

But the Beast and the False Prophet WERE CAST into Gehenna fire immediately after the second coming of Christ, over 1,100 years BEFORE this picture of the incorrigible being destroyed.

This horrifying and great event, obviously placed at some time AFTER the expiration of the thousand years, is brought about for an obvious reason.

God will finally interrupt human reproduction!

Throughout the millennium, as many scriptures describe, human, physical nations will be living in a virtual UTOPIA; marrying, raising families, enjoying  the miraculous and wondrous fruits and benefits of the very Kingdom of God–the GOVERNMENT OF GOD–which will rule over this entire earth! But during the final  judgment a 100-year life span will be allotted (Isaiah 65:20).

Ironically, human beings can become accustomed to anything.

A few generations ago, our great-grandparents would have been SHOCKED, petrified, if an F-15 jet fighter had suddenly come roaring overhead, to bank  steeply, turn straight up, and disappear out of sight, after-burners blazing,  going up through 50,000 feet in less than three minutes!

They would have believed it to be a visitor from outer space!

Yet, today, millions of human beings in nations all over the world regularly  hear sonic booms; travel in jet aircraft, watch their television sets as the exploits of American and Soviet astronauts are depicted; witness the blast-off  of spaceship Columbia and the return and landing of the space shuttle. Millions  sat transfixed as they watched the first American lunar landing; watched men walking, cavorting and driving lunar vehicles about on the surface of the  moon. Millions have watched laser-guided “smart bombs” and cruise missiles smashing dead center into targets in Iraq and Afghanistan!

How quickly we human beings adapt. How quickly we take things for granted.

Apparently, at the end of 1,000 years, millions of human beings will have  begun to take for granted the very Kingdom, rule and government of  God! It will not seem at all “strange” to them to be in virtual daily contact  with those of a different dimension, a spirit world, who will be visibly manifest to them!

During the entire thousand years–the millennial reign of Christ–Satan has  been “imprisoned,” barred from access to the human race.

Now, however, God is dealing with the final, end-time generation; the progeny  of all those who have absolutely rebelled, and REFUSED to repent, and to submit  to and accept the government of God.

God allows Satan to once again influence these human beings, and in his final  and last great dramatic act Satan the devil once more attempts to marshal  sufficient human forces, together with his millions of demons, to attempt to  overthrow the very throne and government of God!

The number THREE is used by God to connote finality.

This will be Satan’s THIRD and FINAL attempt to overthrow the government of God! The first was when he attempted to overthrow God prior to the creation of  Adam. The second is depicted in the 12th chapter of Revelation, and takes place  just prior to the great tribulation.

This, the third and final attempt of Satan the devil, ends in much the same  way, except that this time Satan is banished from the earth FOREVER, and  is to become, if the strong hint in the book of Jude is any guide, like a “. . .wandering star[s], to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 13).

Now, notice again the last two verses of the 20th chapter of Revelation.

“And death and hell [Greek: the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This  is the SECOND DEATH.

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the  lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14, 15).

The macabre description of verse 14 strongly implies that those who are in  the grave, even though they have met the first death (“to all men it is given once to die”) are nevertheless waiting in their graves for a resurrection which  will culminate in their being put to death BY FIRE!

The Bible plainly shows that all men die, ONCE.” This first  human, physical death is nothing more than the logical consequence of the aging  process. It may come at great age simply because vital organs wear out, and a  person dies of “old age.” It may come quietly in one’s sleep. It may be through  infant mortality, sickness or disease, accidents, such as automobile collisions,  airplane crashes, drownings, or even dying through smoke inhalation or in  flames. It may come through warfare–and MILLIONS will yet die in global  wars!

But, no matter how it comes, this first death is NOT the “second death”  spoken of in the Bible; it is NOT the penalty for SIN! It is the normal,  natural, human result of wars, accidents, caprice or old age!

It might be said that some people like my grandmother, who died at age 96,  die in a pleasant fashion. She merely went to  sleep in her chair with her Bible, which she had been  reading, on her lap, and failed to wake up. No death could be more merciful.

Of course, she was a converted member of God’s true church, and is not in the  category we speak of here.

But Almighty God has decreed “the wages of sin is DEATH” (Romans 6:23) and He  plainly shows us that the kind of death; the mode, method or TYPE of death, is  being cast into the “lake of fire”!

The Bible clearly teaches that the final wages of sins unrepented of shall be HELL FIRE!

But it is not a fire which is burning forever; and human beings are not  tortured endlessly; rather, they are burned up in the “lake of fire”! The true “hell fire” of the Bible is THOUSANDS OF DEGREES CENTIGRADE HOTTER than the false “ever burning hell fire” of paganism! The fire of God BURNS UP the wicked, instead of merely singeing them, torturing them!

Now, read Peter’s description of this horrifying occurrence.

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with  fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. what manner of persons  ought ye to be in all holy conduct and godliness,

“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the  heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with  fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:10-12).

The incorrigibly wicked will be resurrected in a final, THIRD  resurrection–which is a resurrection to DEATH! The rich man in the parable of  Luke 16 is spoken of as being in the GRAVE (verse 23), where he finally “lift[s]  up his eyes, being in TORMENTS . . .” (verse 23). A little later he begs, “. . . Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my  tongue; for I am TORMENTED in [by–Greek] this flame”! (verse 24).

What? Think about it! If he is already in a flame; completely surrounded by and engulfed by seething fires, would he be carrying on a conversation? Instantly his hair, eyebrows and eyelashes would have dissolved; his skin would  begin blistering, and he would have only a fraction of a second to emit a  bloodcurdling SCREAM!

No, this conversation is not coming from a man who is completely engulfed in  flame! What, then, is TORMENTING the rich man?

Why, what he SEES COMING TOWARD HIM, AND THE CONTRAST OF WHAT HE SEES LAZARUS ENJOYING! Notice: It says he “lift up his EYES. . .” even as Jesus warned the Pharisees, “You shall SEE Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom, and you yourselves cast out”!

Shocked realization comes to the rich man’s mind! According to the parable, he instantly recognizes Lazarus and Abraham. He sees them as if in a glorious state, perhaps even engaged in partaking of a sumptuous banquet, not unlike the  hundreds of banquets the rich man enjoyed during his life, all the while  refusing even the leavings of his table for Lazarus!

Instantly, he realizes a wall of flame is coming toward him, threatening to engulf him! Frightened nearly out of his wits, his mouth becomes completely DRY!  His tongue virtually cleaves to the roof of his mouth, and he cannot even  moisten his lips! In mental anguish and paralyzing fright, he calls out for  Lazarus to at LEAST “dip the tip of his finger in water” and COOL HIS  TONGUE!

If he were in the flames, he would call for a bucket brigade; for BARRELS, thousands of GALLONS of water, for several fire companies, dozens of hoses, or a thunderous cloudburst of rain!

His anguish is, at the very instant of his awareness, MENTAL anguish!

Now, complete the parable, bearing in mind all you have learned. After the  statement from Abraham reminding the rich man that his brief lifetime brought  him all the good things while he looked on Lazarus’ suffering, Abraham says, “And beside all this, between us and you there is a GREAT GULF FIXED so that  they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that  would come from thence”! (verse 26). The rich man is shockingly made aware that  it is everlastingly TOO LATE! He had already committed, by hundreds of acts of  omission; by a continuous attitude of cruelty and hardness of heart, the unpardonable sin!

Resigned, at last, to his fate, he begs Abraham to send someone to his  father’s house, to warn his five brothers–“. . . lest they also come into this  place of torment” (verse 28).

Abraham then says, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear  them”!

Amazing. Here, even in a New Testament parable of Jesus Christ, Christ  characterizes Abraham as saying, in the future, to the rich man that there is  sufficient knowledge and information in the OLD TESTAMENT to understand the plan  of salvation! He strongly insists that anyone who will truly listen to “Moses  and the prophets” can come into possession of saving knowledge!

Notice what the rich man then acknowledges. He says, “. . . Nay, father  Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent” (verse  30).

The rich man now realizes that Abraham has been DEAD. He realizes he, the  rich man, has also been dead for an indeterminate number of years. Suddenly, he is aware that he has been completely OBLIVIOUS to the passage of time; in his  own mind, his brethren, living in his father’s house, are still there.

In his vision of the Kingdom of God, he hears Abraham finally say, “. . . If  they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, THOUGH ONE  ROSE FROM THE DEAD”! (verse 31).

What a shocking truth!

Do you know what this final line of the parable obviously implies?

It implies the shocking TRUTH that this world will NOT take warning from, nor heed the invitation of, JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH!

For Jesus Christ of Nazareth DID, literally RISE FROM THE DEAD!

He commissioned His apostles, sent His Holy Spirit and formed them into the nucleus of His church.

He delivered to that church the great commission to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God (the coming ruling GOVERNMENT of God) as a WARNING, and as a witness against the nations!

It is actually TRUE, then, that, even though “one from the dead” witnesses to  hard-hearted human beings, they WILL NOT hear! Millions of deceived, professing nominal “Christians” THINK they are saved! Yet, those same millions believe “Moses and the Prophets,” in other words, the OLD TESTAMENT, is DONE AWAY! They do NOT BELIEVE “Moses and the Prophets,” NOR do they believe Jesus Christ Himself!

Now you know the real TRUTH about the parable of “Lazarus and the rich  man!”

Remember, the Word of God stands or  falls on any one of its parts. The many plain, easy to understand scriptures and  direct quotations from Jesus Christ concerning the state of the dead, the  resurrections, the judgment, the second coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God  cannot be torn out of the Bible by those who would seek to use a comparatively  vague, ambiguous and somewhat puzzling PARABLE to teach the opposite!

Ignoring the hard-hitting lesson of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man,  countless professing Christians have seized upon this vague parable, twisted it  and distorted it out of all sense and meaning, and tried to use it to perpetuate  the false doctrines of the immortality of the soul, an ever-burning hell and the  myth that Christians go immediately to heaven when they die!

The sin of the rich man is a sin commonly shared by millions today! Without pity, without compassion and genuine empathy for their fellow man, they observe  other human beings about them who are sick, diseased, injured or in poverty, and  go their own way, lavishing every good thing on themselves, and ignoring those  in desperate need!

Now, as a special study help, here is some important information from Dr. Bullinger’s “Companion Bible” which demonstrates the truth about the Greek words translated “hell” in the King James Bible.

THE SYNONYMOUS WORDS FOR “HELL,” ETC.

APPENDIX 131, REPRINTED FROM BULLINGER’S  “COMPANION BIBLE”

“Hell” is the English rendering of two different Greek words in the N.T

The English word is from the Anglo-Saxon hel, Genitive Case helle = a hidden  place, from the Anglo-Saxon helan = to hide.

It is in the N.T. used as the translation of two Greek words:

1. Gehenna.– Gr. geenna. This is the transliteration of the Heb. Gai’  Hinnom, i.e. the Valley of Hinnom or “the Valley” of [the sons of] Hinnom, where  were the fires through which children were passed in the worship of Moloch.

In the O.T Tophet was the Heb. word used, because it was a place in this valley.

In our Lord’s day the idolatry had ceased, but the fires were still  continually burning there for the destruction of the refuse of Jerusalem. Hence, geenna was used for the fires of destruction associated with the judgment of God. Sometimes, “geenna of fire.”  See 2 Kings 23.10. Isa. 30. 33. Jer. 7. 31,  32; 19. 11-14.

Geenna occurs 12 times, and is always rendered “hell,” viz. Matt. 5. 22, 29,  30; 10. 28; 18. 9; 23. 15, 33. Mark 9. 43,45,47. Luke 12. 5. Jas. 3. 6.

133. Hades.– Gr. hades. from a (privative) and idein, to see (Ap. 133. I.  i); used by the Greeks for the unseen world.

The meaning which the Greeks put upon it does not concern us; nor have we  anything to do with the imaginations of the heathen, or the traditions of Jews  or Romanists, or the teachings of demons or evil spirits, or of any who still  cling to them.

The Holy Spirit has used it as one of the “words pertaining to the earth,” and in so doing has “purified” it, “as silver tried in furnace” (see notes on  Ps. 12.6). From this we learn that His own words “are pure,” but words belonging  to this earth have to be “purified.”

The Old Testament is the fountainhead of the Hebrew language. It has no literature behind it. But the case is entirely different with the Greek  language. The Hebrew Sheol is a word Divine in its origin and usage. The Greek Hades is human in its origin and comes down to us laden with centuries of  development, in which it has acquired new senses, meanings, and usages.

Seeing that the Holy Spirit has used it in Acts 2. 27, 31 as His own  equivalent of Sheol in Psalm 16. 10, He has settled, once for all, the sense in which we are to understand it. The meaning He has given to Sheol in Ps. 16. 10  is the one meaning we are to give it wherever it occurs in the N.T, whether we transliterate it or translate it. We have no liberty to do otherwise, and must  discard everything outside the Word of God.

The word occurs eleven times (Matt. 11. 23; 16. 18, Luke 10. 15; 16. 23. Acts  2. 27,31. 1 Cor. 15. 55. Rev. 1. 18; 6. 8; 20. 13, 14); and is rendered “hell” in every passage except one, where it is rendered “grave” (1 Cor. 15. 55, marg. “hell”).

In the R.V. the word is always transliterated Hades, except in 1 Cor. 15.  55 (where “death” is substituted because of the reading, in all the texts, of thanate for hade), and in the American R.V. also.

As Hades is the Divine Scriptural equivalent of Sheol, further light may be gained from Ap. 35, and a reference to the 65 passages there given. It may be  well to note that while Hades is rendered “hell” in the N.T. (except once,  where the rendering “the grave” could not be avoided), Sheol, its Hebrew  equivalent, occurs 65 times, and is rendered “the grave” 31 times (or 54  percent); “hell” 31 times (4 times with margin “the grave,” reducing it to 41.5 percent); and “pit” only 3 times (or 4.5 percent).

“The grave,” therefore, is obviously the best rendering, meaning the state of  death (Germ. sterbend, for which we have no English equivalent); not the act of  dying, as an examination of all the occurrences of both words will show.

1. The rendering “pit” so evidently means “the grave” that it may at once be  substituted for it (Num. 16. 30, 33. Job 17. 16).
2. The rendering “the grave” (not “a grave,” which is Hebrew keber; or bor) exactly expresses the meaning of both Sheol and Hades. For, as to direction, it  is always down: as to place, it is in the earth: as to relation, it is always in contrast with the state of the living (Deut. 32. 22-25 and 1 Sam. 2. 6-8); as to  association, it is connected with mourning (Gen. 37. 34, 35), sorrow (Gen. 42.  38. 2 Sam. 22. 6. Ps. 18. 5; 116. 3), fright and terror (Num. 16. 27, 34),  mourning (Isa. 38. 3,10, 17, 18), silence (Ps. 6. 5; 31. 17. Ecc. 9. 10), no  knowledge (Ecc. 9. 5,6, 10), punishment (Num. 16. 29, 34. 1 Kings 2. 6, 9. Job  24. 19. Ps. 9. 17 (R.V. = re-turned)), corruption (Ps. 16. 10. Acts 2. 27, 31);  as to duration, resurrection is the only exit from it (Ps. 16. 11. Acts 2. 27,  31; 13. 33-37. 1 Cor. 15. 55. Rev. 1. 18; 20. 5, 13, 14).

III. Tartaroo (occurs only in 2 Pet. 2. 4) = to thrust down to Tartarus,  Tartarus being a Greek word, not used elsewhere, or at all in the Sept. Homer  describes it as subterranean (cp. Deut. 32. 22, which may refer to this). The  Homeric Tartarus is the prison of the Titans, or giants (cp. Heb. Rephaim, Apt.  25), who rebelled against Zeus.”

Now you know the TRUTH about “Lazarus and the Rich Man.” And now you know why it is that, after these 45 and more years, no one has ever been able to claim that $10,000 certified cashier’s check! It is because the words “immortal soul,” or “your immortal soul” are nowhere in the Bible!

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

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“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them … And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4). Millions have read those words. Millions believe in the literal, bodily second coming of Jesus Christ—and millions are beginning to understand that Christ is going to set up His ruling KINGDOM.

Many years ago, when I was first ordained as a minister of Jesus Christ (1955), the work with which I was then connected was like a veritable “voice in the wilderness,” crying out about the soon-coming Kingdom of God.

Major percentages of the mainstream fundamentalist ministry denied the literal second coming of Jesus Christ; major percentages of those graduating from the theological seminaries during the’50s and’60s did not believe in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ; His ascension into heaven at the right hand of God, nor His imminent return!

But there has gradually begun a revolutionary change in the thinking of many theologians.

As never before, a tremendous fascination with prophecy; the events of the future, has gripped the minds of millions!

Hal Lindsey, author of several best-sellers, not the least of which was his original The Late Great Planet Earth, as well as many other authors, has contributed to informing countless millions of Americans, Britons, Canadians and those in Europe and other countries that we are, in fact, living in “the time of the end,” as prophesied in the Bible; that a violent REVOLUTION is going to take place on the earth, and that, eventually, the Kingdom of God will be set up!

Yet, for all the ballyhoo over the FACT of Christ’s imminent return; the FACT of the setting up of the Kingdom of God, there remains great CONFUSION in the minds of millions about WHERE that Kingdom will reign!

The Bible Prophesied Confusion

This is hardly a surprise to serious students of the Bible.

Satan the devil is described as that great serpent who “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), and Jesus Christ clearly prophesied that the time of His second coming would be in a time of mass confusion, deception, delusion and spiritual darkness!

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

“Hereby know ye the spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come [is now coming] in the flesh is of God:

“And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is in the world” (1 John 4:1-3).

Millions have heard about the famous “ANTICHRIST,” knowing that there is one individual, called the “false prophet” in biblical prophecy, who will literally proclaim himself to BE VERY GOD, and who will deceive millions!

John also warned: “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (2 John 7).

What many do not realize is there are MANY who bear the title “antichrist” and that, while it is true this title may apply to one great false religious leader, it is also plainly true from your Bible that anyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ is able to live His life over within us (Galatians 2:20) is the spirit of antichrist.

That one great false prophet is described in 2 Thessalonians 2.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

“Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is GOD”! (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4).

Later, the apostle Paul said that this great false Christ would have such satanic power and lying wonders (verse 9) that multitudes would be completely deceived.

Notice! “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all powers and signs and lying wonders,

“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish [are perishing]; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

“For this cause God shall send them strong delusion [working of error], that they should believe a lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:8-11).

Satan the devil is the archdeceiver.

However, remember a deceived person is completely innocent, unaware of the fact he or she is deceived.

A person laboring through various forms of mental and religious deception can be a thirsting, questing, sincere person!

He can have only the best of motives; be of impeccable character and integrity; be striving to live a pure and holy Christian life!

Because a person is deceived does not mean he is deliberately wrong!

Oftentimes, our human defenses rise up and ARGUE when an article such as this might begin to tug at the corners of our mind, making us wonder whether or not certain concepts and beliefs we have held to be true are, in fact, false.

We regard it as an attack upon our “empirical self.” Our defenses immediately begin to excuse ourselves; surely WE could not have been deceived?

We tend to believe anything which proves we have been wrong about something we have believed represents an attack upon our character!

Not so!

It has nothing to Do with character! People of good character can be deceived!

Satan the devil is the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), and is identified as the present evil god of this sin-sick, deceived world! (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Satan the devil has his churches (Revelation 3:9; 17:4-6), and Satan has his ministers in those churches! (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

How the Deception Is Being Prepared

As never before, there is a fantastic obsession with life in outer space; the mysteries of bygone civilizations; demonism, witchcraft, the unseen, spirit world, and future events which will affect the earth, such as various alleged “invasions” from outer space!

From the explosive proliferation of electronic games, most of which are whetting the appetite of countless millions of youngsters concerning the Buck Rogers age of space travel (Space Invaders, Pac-Man, etc.) to countless motion pictures, television specials, and tens of thousands of futuristic, science fiction novels, millions upon millions are being prepared for a false belief which will lead directly to the fulfillment of the prophecy of Revelation 17:14.

HOW, one might ask, could anyone in his right mind actually fight Christ at His coming?

Answer?

If he believes the REAL Christ is actually the antichrist, if he does not recognize the actual event of the REAL second coming of Jesus Christ, but believes it to be the evil advent of the ANTICHRIST, then he will be fully prepared, because of a masterful DECEPTION, to attempt to resist the actual arrival of the conquering KING OF THE UNIVERSE, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to this earth!

When it happens—when Jesus Christ actually comes back to this earth—there will be MILLIONS who will be convinced it is (a) an invasion from outer space from strange beings from faraway planets; (b) an invasion from a foreign power with super weapons such as lasers, space mirrors, doomsday nuclear weapons, “space ships” and orbital satellites; or (c) a superhuman attack by the ANTICHRIST and hordes of his demons in a last-ditch attempt to take over the world and rule it!

What is YOUR protection against deception?

What is most important to you?

Are your concepts the traditions, cherished “beliefs,” religious teachings you received as a child growing up, or in the church you attended, or is the criterion you use for belief the yardstick of the holy, sacred, absolute WORD OF GOD?

In this article you will see exposed one of the great false teachers of recent years!

You will see how deliberate distortions of the Bible were perpetrated, and how countless thousands have swallowed them whole, never comparing, carefully, what so-called religious leaders have written with the Bible!

Somehow, as religious people begin looking to a human, religious leader, they subtly begin to exchange that leader for Jesus Christ!

There finally comes a time in this idolatrous type of human worship where the unsuspecting lay member has unknowingly substituted his religious leader for Jesus Christ Himself!

At that point in time, the human religious leader, though fallible, gripped by egotism and vanity, can begin to propound and teach doctrines which are directly contrary to the written Word of God, and the followers will meekly go right along with it; never questioning, convinced they must follow that religious leader “NO MATTER WHAT”!

No longer are they constrained to follow a human religious leader ONLY as he follows CHRIST (1 Corinthians 11:1)—now they will begin to say following that religious leader ONLY as “he follows Christ” is “not good enough”!

For the purposes of the remainder of this article, we will investigate the doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which teaches the saints will be assumed into heaven for the period of 1,000 years for “investigative judgment,” while the earth remains absolutely desolate, with Satan the devil virtually its only inhabitant, endlessly reviewing the awful destruction his rebellion has wrought.

Adventists are very familiar with the doctrine of the saints going to heaven for the 1,000-year millennial reign of Christ, and the “desolate earth” as portrayed in some of the writings of Mrs. E.G. White.

Certainly, none of her books is more cogent to this doctrine than The Great Controversy.

Of course, widespread sensational publicity has recently revealed that leaders in the Seventh-day Adventist Church have themselves begun to debunk Mrs. E.G. White as a false prophetess, and, allegedly, a proved plagiarist, who did not really originate all of the prolific writings with which she is credited, but who may have heavily borrowed from other sources, for which she never gave credit.

The “great controversy,” indeed, now seems to be whether or not Mrs. E.G. White ever was a “prophetess,” as tens of thousands of Seventh-day Adventists have supposed, and whether or not her books truly carry anywhere near the weight it was previously supposed.

Actually, many sincere Seventh-day Adventists placed the writings of Mrs. E.G. White on an equal par with the BIBLE!

Perhaps, unknowingly, some have even elevated her writings to a level ABOVE the Bible—and if they have done, so then the idolatry of the gradual substitution of the writings and sayings of a human leader ABOVE those of Jesus Christ of Nazareth had, in fact, taken place in the minds of those who would go so far in their adulation of another human being!

First, let’s see a description from The Great Controversy of how Mrs. E.G. White imagined the scenario both in heaven and on earth at the time of the beginning of the millennium:

“At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth—consumed with the spirit of His mouth and destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants…The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness. The ruins of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted trees, ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself, are scattered over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains have been rent from their foundations.

“. . . As the scapegoat was sent away into a land not inhabited, so Satan will be banished to the desolate earth, an uninhabited and dreary wilderness.

“The revelator foretells the banishment of Satan and the condition of chaos and desolation to which the earth is to be reduced, and he declares that this condition will exist for a thousand years” (The Great Controversy, pages 657, 658).

At least one full volume would be required to thoroughly critique the gross errors, flagrant misquotations, distortions and perversions of Scripture which appear in The Great Controversy.

The foregoing represents only portions of two pages in the chapter entitled “Desolation of the Earth” in Mrs. E.G. White’s well-known book The Great Controversy.

Now, please get your own Bible and carefully perform the following experiment:

Immediately below, you will see quoted, word for word, exactly Mrs. E.G. White’s version of Isaiah 24:1, 3, 5 and 6.

Remember, her doctrine (commonly accepted by most Seventh-day Adventists), as briefly set forth above, asserts that the entirety of the earth will be absolutely DESOLATE for the period of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ; that the saints are up in heaven, while Satan the devil is chained to a desolate, uninhabited earth, suffering some alleged mental anguish at seeing all of his attempted plots and plans, the overthrow of God’s throne and His government, destroyed.

But is this what the Bible says?

As you shall see, one would have to be afflicted with a strange case of “tunnel vision,” indeed, to presuppose that Mrs. White, in writing this chapter, with her own Bible open before her to the 24th chapter of Isaiah, did not see the many portions she deliberately LEFT OUT Of her quotation—the very key words and phrases which would have utterly destroyed her entire theory of a “desolate earth” for 1,000 years!

For the purposes of your experiment, if you do not wish to mark in your own Bible, simply write out the words from your own King James Bible that Mrs. E. G. White deliberately omitted!

Is your Bible ready?

Is it open to Isaiah 24, verses 1-6?

If it is, then let us proceed!

This is Mrs. White’s version, found approximately two thirds of the way down on page 657 of The Great Controversy: “At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth—consumed with the spirit of his mouth and destroyed by the brightness of his glory. Christ takes his people to the city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants.

“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

“The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

“Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned” (Isaiah 24:1, 3, 5, 6).

Now go back and underline, or write out, all of the words from verse 1 through verse 6 which were OMITTED from Mrs. White’s quotation.

They are as follows: “and it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver or usury to him.

“The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.

“The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; … and FEW MEN LEFT”! (Isaiah 24:6).

What a difference! But now, for the purposes of your experiment, go back and read the entirety of the 24th chapter of Isaiah in its proper context!

Let’s notice some salient points which Mrs. E.G. White apparently (either afflicted with a most remarkable case of “tunnel vision” in all of history, or just plain DISHONEST) failed to notice!

The subject of Isaiah 24 is obviously God’s punishments to come on this earth at the very time of the great tribulation (chapter 24:1-18), the heavenly signs (Isaiah 24:23), the Day of the Lord and the second coming of Jesus Christ (verse 23).

But does the 24th chapter of Isaiah say that the entire earth is completely EMPTIED of all of its inhabitants?

Notice the following statement!

“Behold, the Eternal maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and SCATTERETH ABROAD THE INHABITANTS THEREOF”‘!

Remember, the Hebrew word for “earth” is ehrets, which can mean the land, partitively or commonly. It can apply to the whole world, or it can apply to “the land” being spoken of in the context. In this case, it is speaking (as it is obvious in the context) of “the land” for the simple reason that the Holy Scriptures say God Will “SCATTER ABROAD the INHABITANTS thereof”!

What happens to these inhabitants—human, living, breathing people—on the earth? Are they utterly destroyed? Is there not a single man, woman or child left? Is the earth to be rendered completely DESOLATE and Empty of all inhabitants?

No! The Bible says the inhabitants (citizens, people, population) are “scattered abroad”! That means they are widely dispersed from one part of the land (ehrets) to another part.

Then follows verse 2, which says there is no respector of persons; that it will be the same with the priest, maid, mistress, buyer, seller, lender, and so on.

Notice verse 4! It says, “. . . The haughty people of the earth DO LANGUISH”! To “languish” means to mourn; to be afflicted, perhaps in desperate straits of hardship, privation, even injury and wounds! But people who are languishing are LIVING PEOPLE!

Notice the next few words in verse 5: “The earth also is defiled UNDER THE INHABITANTS THEREOF”! Notice the earth still has INHABITANTS! The earth is defiled and ruined; God’s judgments will come upon nation after nation until they shall be utterly destroyed and there will be massive loss of human life!

But there are survivors described in this passage of Scripture!

Notice verse 6. “Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate”!

While Mrs. White did quote this portion only of the verses she selected, she went right over it, and then included the words “therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned,” and placed a period where a commaactually appears in the Bible!

Note this well!

Turn to Isaiah 24 and verse 6. Notice that following the words “of the earth are burned” you see the words in your Bible “AND FEW MEN LEFT”!

Why did Mrs. E.G. White deliberately OMIT those words—those very descriptive words which PROVE that there are LIVING inhabitants left on the earth after this great destruction?

Yes, WHY did she DELIBERATELY place a period where there is a comma in the Bible, the holy Word of God?

Did she not realize the great curse Almighty God pronounces upon anyone who would “take away” from the Word of God? Now, finish reading the entire 24th chapter of Isaiah.

Notice verse 9: “They shall not drink wine…To them that drink it.” Again, people being described!

Verse 10: “. . . Every house is shut up, that no man may come in.”

Notice verse 13! “When thus it shall be in the midst of the land (ehrets) AMONG THE PEOPLE. . .”

Notice verse 14: “They shall lift up their voice … THEY shall sigh for the majesty of the Eternal, they shall cry aloud from the sea.”

Who? PEOPLE who are LEFT alive! Inhabitants of the earth!

Notice verse 17, and many other verses, where it is proved over and over again in this chapter that the earth is still inhabited!

“Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O INHABITANT OF THE EARTH”!

Do you need more proofs? All one need do is apply this very same experiment to the entirety of the “desolation of the earth” chapter in The Great Controversy and you will see example after example of this type of distortion, perversion, deliberate omission and twisting of the sacred Word of God!

Surely, this represents one of the most blatant and deliberate examples of the wresting and perversion of sacred Scripture on record! However, there are MANY examples to be found in the writings of any number of religious leaders—and a serious, careful, sincere and cautious student of the Word of God will do exactly as God says and COMPARE what these teachers say with the Bible!

Now, what does the Bible really say about where the millennium will be spent?

The Saints Shall Reign ON EARTH!

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them … and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4).

The word millennium is never mentioned in the Bible. It is merely an English word which means “one thousand years.” For purposes of reference to this “one thousand years” spoken of in Revelation 20, verses 4, 5, 6 and 7, many use the word “millennium.”

And WHERE will this “millennium,” or 1,000 years, be spent?

It said the resurrected saints, together with those who are to meet Jesus Christ at His return in the air, are to “live and reign” with Him for ONE THOUSAND YEARS!

Where?

Notice!

“And they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof—for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

“And hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests: and we shall reign ON THE EARTH”! (Revelation 5:10).

Jesus said, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne” (Revelation 3:21).

WHERE is that throne Jesus is coming to inherit? It is ON THIS EARTH!

Notice! “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of his father David and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His Kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32, 33).

In this salutation to Mary, prior to the birth of Jesus Christ, it was predicted, even as Almighty God had made a covenant with David, that Jesus is coming back to inherit David’s throne.

Of this throne, the prophecies say that it was to be “overturned, overturned, overturned [three overturns!] and be never more overturned until He come whose right it is”! (Ezekiel 21:27).

Notice how God promises Jesus Christ will reign on the earth, “Behold, the days come, saith the Eternal, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth” (Jeremiah 23:5).

One of the most important scriptures which absolutely destroys Mrs. E.G. White’s “desolate earth theory” is Isaiah the 11th chapter!

Read this interesting, important chapter with your own eyes!

Notice some excerpts from it: “But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the EARTH and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked … The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

“And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

“And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp [puff adder] and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den [the den of a poisonous snake],

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the EARTH shall be full of the knowledge of the Eternal, as the waters cover the sea.

“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse [CHRIST], which shall stand for an ensign for the people; to which shall the Gentiles [nations on this earth!] seek: and His rest [the millennial reign of Christ] shall be glorious.

“And it shall come to pass, in that day [shortly after the second coming of Christ, and as the government of God is being set up on the earth], that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the Islands of the sea.

“And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel [remember those who were ‘scattered abroad’ in Isaiah 24?] and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth … And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be LEFT, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came out of the land of Egypt” (Isaiah 11, selected verses).

Read Ezekiel 36, how the waste places will be rebuilt.

Then read the magnificent prophecies of Isaiah 2 and Micah 4!

Both are concerned with the establishment of the KINGDOM OF GOD on this earth!

Notice: “And it shall come to pass, in the last days, that the mountain of the External’s house [a type of the KINGDOM OF GOD] shall be established in the top of the mountains [a symbol of larger nations], and shall be exalted above the hills [a symbol of smaller nations]; and all nations shall flow unto it!

“And many people shall go and say, ‘come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Eternal from Jerusalem.”

“And He shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many PEOPLE: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”! (Isaiah 2:2-4).

Read the parallel account in Micah’s prophecy where Micah says, “. . . Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

“But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make him afraid: for the mouth of the Eternal of hosts hath spoken it.

“For all people will walk everyone in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Eternal our God forever and ever.

“In that day, saith the Eternal, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted:

“And I will make her that halteth [the remnant of Israel] a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Eternal shall reign over them IN MOUNT ZION from henceforth, even forever”!

Can anything be more PLAIN?

Actually, these are but a few samples of the literally DOZENS of scriptures which absolutely PROVE that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is coming back down to this earth—that He is going to establish His great Kingdom here, ON THIS EARTH, and that He will rule over human, physical nations on this earth for the period of the millennium—for 1,000 years!

Are there lions, poisonous snakes, leopards, cows and little children in heaven? Certainly, no thinking, rational, right-minded person can read these many thunderous pronouncements from the Eternal God, from the words of sacred Scripture, and not be absolutely CONVINCED and CONVICTED that the Kingdom is going to rule ON THIS EARTH!

Read Zechariah 14:4! This plainly shows, “In that day,” when Jesus Christ returns, His “feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives”—that He is coming back EXACTLY as the angelic messenger said He would (Acts 1:11), “in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven”!

When we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and the surrounding verses that those who are alive at the second coming of Christ will be “caught up together with them [the ones having just been resurrected] to meet the Lord in the air,” we know that, true to the prophecy of Matthew 24:31, the angels will gather the redeemed from around the world, they will be collected together to MEET the returning, conquering Christ in the air (and the AIR is very much a part of this earth’s environment, its immediate atmosphere), and continue on down to the Mount of Olives in that very same day!

The idea of a prolonged “rapture,” wherein the saints are taken away into heaven, is as false as any other lie which Satan the devil has ever concocted!

Surely, it is a shock to sincere, believing people to realize religious leaders have (sometimes deliberately) deceived them!

Your ONLY protection against that kind of deception is very careful comparison between everything they say or write and the sacred Word of God!

The events of the future are grouped together in three broad prophetic divisions in the book of Revelation. They are: (1) the coming Great Tribulation, (2) the heavenly signs, (3) the Day of the Lord!

If you memorize the following two scriptures, no one Will EVER deceive you again with regard to the order of events very clearly set forth in the Bible! Simply read Joel 2:31, and then Matthew 24:29!

You will see that the heavenly signs come immediately after the great tribulation (Matthew 24:29), and that the heavenly signs occur just BEFORE the terrible Day of the Lord (Joel 2:31).

The “rapturists” presuppose that because of the horrors of the period identified as “the great tribulation” it is inconceivable that any of the “saints” are still on the earth at this time!

But the Bible clearly shows they ARE!

Those who are overcoming, growing in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, watching world conditions, praying and being deeply involved in the work of God—including not forsaking their own very important personal witness when required—will be supernaturally PROTECTED, even as God protected the Israelites in the land of Goshen, during the plagues upon Egypt!

We are now about to enter the time of that great tribulation!

That means there are impending national calamities about to befall the people of the United States, Britain, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Commonwealth countries and the democracies of Northwestern Europe!

It also means the rapid deployment of a multilateral force from Europe at the behest of the papacy into Palestine and the Middle East! (See Daniel 11:40 to the end of that chapter.)

A great worldwide TRADE WAR. is just ahead! Global economic collapse is just ahead!

Out of the terrible poverty soon to strike many of the major nations of this earth will arise militarists, despots, dictators!

Serious protectionism, “dumping” of various products in order to gain a profit, tariffs, surcharges, exorbitant export-import taxes, and trade wars are beginning, NOW, and major reverberations are soon to be felt throughout the international banking community!

Remember, the mysterious “mark of the beast” is ECONOMIC as well as spiritual in nature! It plainly says that unless a person receives this “mark” (WILL it be some sort of invisible personal identification number actually tattooed into the foreheads of those who accept it?) no man may “buy or sell”!

Finally, when the Western nations lie prostrate, under the heel of a new DICTATOR, at the head of 10 nations in Europe, Almighty God Will HALT all human activity just short of a global NUCLEAR WAR between the new European power and the Soviet Union!

Such a war would mean the literal extermination of all of humankind!

God intends STOPPING IT (Matthew 24:21, 22) just short of that time!

What event halts it?

Read the last of Revelation 6 and Revelation 7!

This prophecy ties directly in with Joel 2:31 and Matthew 24:19! Almighty God rolls back the heavens, SHOCKS all of humankind with a dramatic display of His “heavenly signs,” wherein leaders from many nations are so terrified they literally cry out for the rocks to fall on them and hide them!

Then, swiftly, as those who have been lethargic, lukewarm, or who have “lost their first love” are SHOCKED into awareness—as millions who have heard the message but never really HEEDED are STAGGERED into stunned realization of what is really happening and beginning to cry out to God to be CONVERTED, Will follow, immediately, the dreadful DAY OF THE LORD!

The Day of the Lord consists of seven trumpet plagues, the last three of which are called “three woes,” and the last of these “three woes” is made up of the “seven last plagues.”

Christ does not come to this earth until the outpouring of the last and FINAL of the seven last plagues!

Once you understand this step-by-step ORDER OF EVENTS in Bible prophecy, and prove it to yourself thoroughly by careful study of the book of Revelation in the light of Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, you Will NOT be deceived by false leaders who would deliberately wrest and twist the Bible for their own purposes, merely to gain a following!

It is because of the masterful deception of Satan the devil that the MILLIONS are utterly blinded to the very PURPOSE for human life!

HOW FEW comparatively, really understand that this human life is like “boot camp” or primary training for the very Kingdom of God!

HOW FEW understand that we are to be busily QUALIFYING to become “KINGS AND PRIESTS” and to actually sit on exalted THRONES, ruling with Jesus Christ of Nazareth, making far-reaching judgmental decisions, edicts, issuing orders which will enforce PEACE upon a sin-sick, war-torn world at last?

This earth is where the problems are!

It is here on this earth, that Jesus Christ intends cleaning house—solving the problems—ushering in an era of absolute compulsory joy!

Yes, the saints will reign ON THE EARTH!

Remember Jesus’ admonition (Luke 21:36), and ask yourself are you watching world news and conditions; and are you praying always, that you might “be accounted worthy to escape ALL THESE THINGS that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man”?

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post The Millennium: Will It Be Spent in Heaven, or on Earth? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

What you are about to read is ASTONISHING, yet the most COMFORTING information you could ever want. Believe it or not, the expressions “immortality of the soul,” or, “immortal soul,” or “souls go to heaven when we die” ARE NOT FOUND in the Bible! What IS plainly stated in your Bible is the real TRUTH about the state of the dead, and about a RESURRECTION from the dead, for BOTH the “just and the unjust”! Believe it or not, there are THREE resurrections revealed in the Bible! Surprising, yet true! Be sure to read carefully, and look up and read for yourself every scripture quoted in your own Bible!

There is no more important question than that posed by the headline above. There can be no more important answer! To KNOW what happens at death, and to KNOW what happens next, has eluded mankind for centuries. From ancient philosophers to modern-day graduates from religious seminaries there is only confusion.

Millions believe in the “transmigration of souls,” assuming a living “soul” goes on to some other state. Millions believe in “reincarnation”; that they have had a previous life, and will go on to yet another life in some different form. Millions believe the Catholic or Protestant version of the “immortality of the soul”; that one either goes to heaven or to hell, or, as the Catholics believe, to “purgatory” at death.

But the Bible teaches a literal RESURRECTION of a dead BODY! Nowhere does your Bible teach you that you possess an “immortal soul.”

The Truth About The Soul

The original Hebrew word for our English word “soul” is nephesh. It first appears in Genesis 1:21: “And God [Elohim: plural, meaning more than one] created great whales [sea creatures], and every living CREATURE [nephesh=”soul”] that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind…”

The same Hebrew word is used to describe lower life forms, such as bottom-dwelling sea creatures; to describe all kinds of animals, from oxen to dogs, and to describe many aspects of living things. For example, the identical word which is elsewhere translated “soul” is used in your Bible four times of lower animals before it is ever used to refer to man. Notice a few of the many different usages of the Hebrew word nephesh found in the Bible: “Creature” (Genesis 1:21, 24; 2:19; 9:10, 12; Leviticus 11:46 [twice]). “thing” (Leviticus 11:10; Ezek. 47:9). “life” (Genesis 1:20, 30). “The life” (Genesis 9:4; Deuteronomy 12:23, 23). “beast” (Leviticus 24:18 [three times]), and is used dozens of times elsewhere to connote animals of all kinds, and is rendered “breath” in Job 41:21.

This elementary Hebrew word is found in many places in the Bible, such as Numbers 15:27-30, which says, “And if any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering.

“And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him.

“Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.

“But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.” Obviously, there is not the remotest implication here that the word Nephesh, which is rendered “soul” in the English language, means anything other than a PERSON, or an individual. The phrase would be more understandable if it had read, “…the priest shall make an atonement for the person who sins ignorantly…”

The same Hebrew word, Nephesh, is translated “person” (Genesis 14:21; 36:6; Exodus 16:6; Lev. 27:2; Numbers 31:40; Deuteronomy 10:22; Jeremiah 43:6; 52:29, 30, and Ezekiel 16:5, and 27:13.

Nephesh is translated as “persons” (Numbers 31:35), “any” (meaning anyone; any person), (Deuteronomy 24:7), “man” (2 Kings 12:4), “men” (1 Chronicles 5:21), and “he” (Psalms 105:18).

Thus, the IDENTICAL word in Hebrew which is the word rendered “soul” in the Old Testament, is used in many, many different ways to connote human or animal LIFE; life which is sustained by food, air and water; life which can cease, can perish, die, be destroyed. Nephesh is translated as “man, any, anyone, yourselves, person, themselves, himself, he, herself, and himself.”

NEVER is the word “immortal” attached to Nephesh, or the word rendered in English as “soul.”

For more than 42 years, I have offered a certified cashier’s check to anyone who can find the following phrases or sentences in the King James Bible: “Immortal soul,” “immortality of the soul,” “I have an immortal soul,” “You have an immortal soul,” “Our souls go to heaven when we die,” or “I will see you in heaven.” No one has ever collected that check, for no such phrases are found anywhere in the Bible. But your Bible DOES say that “souls” DIE! Why? How? How can this be? Simply because the word “soul,” as amply proven above, does not mean anything other than physical life; the life of animals or men!

The Bible says, “Behold, all souls [lives; beings; persons] are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE!” (Ezekiel 18:4). The identical phrase is repeated in verse 20: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

Obviously, the thrust of this chapter is that God will require an accounting from each INDIVIDUAL; that no one will either bear the iniquity of another, or come under the righteousness of another; that each individual person shall give account of himself! The point is, that your Bible says SOULS DIE! The word “soul” has absolutely NO CONNECTION WHATSOEVER with anything immortal or immaterial!

Now, let’s see the TRUTH about the resurrections prophesied in God’s word.

All your life, you have heard the saying, “You can’t take it with you.” Obviously, as this old saying goes, we leave everything we thought was important; loved ones, home, car, money and jewelry; even collections like bric-a-brac or paintings.

But, believe it or not, even though we eventually return to the ground from which we came, we can take with us our most precious possessions of all! In this encouraging, inspiring booklet, you will find answers to perplexing questions: “What if my spouse was not saved when he died?” “What about my father, who, though not a church-going man, was a good man, honest, and a good husband?” “What about our little girl, who was only two when she died?” “What about our son who was killed in Vietnam? He wasn’t religious, but he was a good boy. Is he in hell? What happened to him when he died?”

“There is nothing surer than death and taxes,” they say. We’ve all heard it. But, since the Bible speaks plainly about a resurrection of the body from the grave, do we take anything with us besides our best dress or suit to the grave? Do we bring anything back with us in the resurrection? Will we recognize our loved ones? If so, will we have our memories intact? And what about the bad memories? What about character, integrity, and knowledge?

When Job learned of the tragedies that had destroyed his family, his herds, and his home, he said: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Eternal gave, and the Eternal hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Eternal” (Job 1:21).

Like families of whom we hear in the news who have lost everything to hurricane, fire, flood, mudslide, or tornado, Job was devastated. His children were dead. His cattle were dead. His home was destroyed.

Faced with this monumental tragedy, he could only contemplate the somber fact that all physical and material things are left behind when we die. He had nothing left. But then, he couldn’t take it with him when it was his turn to be buried.

We’ve all heard it. We have all said it at one time or another. “You can’t take it with you.”

Solomon knew that merely piling up material goods; hoarding money was wrong. He said: “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. As he came forth from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that labored for the wind?” (Ecclesiastes 5:13-16).

The word wind in the book of Ecclesiastes is nearly always rendered “vanity.” It is a book about vanity; about empty, useless agendas; about false hopes, wrong goals, and a “pursuit after wind.” Solomon, too, knew we take nothing material with us to the grave.

Anciently, pagan kings and pharaohs were unwilling to believe these biblical philosophies. They not only thought they could take everything with them into the next life, they struggled all their lives, making life insufferable for thousands around them, to amass a gigantic fortune to accompany them in death, and, presumably, to provide them comforts in their expected life beyond the grave.

The largest monuments on earth are mute testimony to the attempt by the rulers of Egypt to “take it with them” when they died. The pyramids are tombs. With carefully concealed entryways, and mazes of passages, and with myths, lies, and curses, the pharaohs hoped to thwart would-be grave robbers.

Of course, they failed.

Today, like the touring display of King Tutakamen’s golden treasures, their former wealth either ended up in national museums or were sold in bits and pieces on the black market. Their mummified bodies are, like their fabulous wealth, on display to the public.

In ancient China, rulers were sometimes buried in huge crypts, accompanied by dozens of wooden carved warriors on wooden horses, with gold, silver, jewelry, silks, arms, and exquisite works of art alongside them. Sometimes, loyal servants, wives, and bodyguards were either required to commit suicide or were put to death to accompany their ruler into the underworld. Not only did they think they could take material wealth with them, they thought they could take their friends, guards, and family.

But people in the modern Christian-professing world know better, so they are buried in their best (or favorite) suit, or dress. No wallet. No money, no personal possessions. For many, it is the only time they will ever ride in a limousine, and a very rare occasion, indeed, to wear their best suit and tie.

Every Human Dies, But Will be Resurrected

The Bible insists there is coming a time when God will raise the dead. When the dead are raised, what will they be like? Will they appear as they did in life?

God says He will raise all of the dead, no matter into which category, spiritually, they may have belonged.

Your Bible says: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). As God told Adam: “Dust thou art, and unto dust [soil, the elements of this physical earth; the ground, from which we came] shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19). God had warned Adam that in the day he rebelled against God’s commandment, he would surely incur the punishment for sin, which is death.

Notice: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Here are two opposites. Death, and eternal life. Man has no inherent eternal life. We are mortal, physical, temporal. God says: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them [their memory, their consciousness] is forgotten” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

The opposite of death is eternal life.

Your Bible says eternal life is only available “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We do not have a so-called “immortal soul” dwelling within us from conception, or birth.

Eternal life is only possible by the process of spiritual salvation; through repentance of sin, baptism, and the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit, which begets us as His children, called “new creatures in Christ.”

We do not have eternal life by virtue of human birth. We are not immortal. Paul wrote: “Thou shalt keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ … who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach..,” (1 Timothy 6:14-16).

Yet, all your life, you have been taught the myth that man has an immortal soul from birth. You have been taught that the unsaved immediately go to an “ever-burning hellfire,” there to shriek, scream, and writhe in unimaginable agony of fire day after day, month after month, year after year—thousands of lifetimes with never a respite!

All this, so goes the myth, simply because they were born in China, or India, or Bangladesh, or Pakistan, and never heard the name of Jesus Christ!

Is this true? Will God torture for countless billions of years human beings who never had a chance to be saved?

No, a loving God does not torture human beings who never had a chance for salvation. The billions who have lived and died without having heard the name of Jesus Christ are not shrieking in hell. God is love, not hate. He is merciful, not vindictive. He desires to save, not destroy.

So remember, every human being who has ever lived, and who has died, or is yet to die, will be RESURRECTED at some point in time. The first death that occurs to all humans is “natural,” because of the human aging process of our short, human life spans. That first death, no matter how it comes, whether in a murder, or tragic accident, or peacefully, under sedation at age 90, is not the “wages of sin.”

Now, let’s understand. Believe it or not, your Bible shows there will ultimately be three different resurrections!

The First Resurrection

Christ said: “Verily, verily I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [Greek, “judgment”]” (John 5:25-29).

Here, Jesus speaks of two categories of people; those who have done good, and those who have done evil. Two different resurrections, for different purposes. One, a resurrection “of life,” and the other, a resurrection “of judgment.”

The resurrection of life is spoken of in great detail in the New Testament. Notice how Paul puts it: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:19, 20).

The foundational bedrock of the Christian faith is the fact of Christ’s resurrection.

The disciples were, at first, unwilling witnesses. They did not at first believe Jesus had truly been resurrected, that He was alive again! Only after many miraculous occurrences—materializing among them in a closed room, appearing to them along a lonely roadway, appearing to them on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, forcing Thomas to put his hand into the nail and spear wounds—did they finally come to know that “He is risen.”

The fact of Christ’s resurrection was the pivotal centerpiece of the testimony of the disciples. And why not? It was the most astounding, mind-boggling, stupendous event of their lives!

Peter said: “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on His throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul [Greek: psuche, meaning “life”] was not left in hell [Greek: hades, meaning “the grave”], neither His flesh did see corruption.

“This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

“For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:29-36).

The apostles of Christ had not “studied,” or “proved” to themselves out of a set of “proof texts” that Christ was alive. They had seen Him. They didn’t merely “believe,” they KNEW. There is a difference.

Because they knew, they preached, powerfully, of the resurrection.

When they were being examined by the rulers, elders, and the scribes because of an astounding healing of a well-known crippled beggar at one of the city gates, Peter spoke up: “Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole: Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:8-12).

Salvation is only through Jesus Christ of Nazareth; only through repentance (Acts 2:38), baptism (Romans 6), and the receiving of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:32; 1 Corinthians 12:13). Then, when a person who is saved dies, he awaits the first resurrection from the dead, which takes place at the moment of Christ’s return.

Notice that Jesus spoke only of two categories of people, those who were being saved, and those who had not yet been judged, who were unsaved. But Christ Himself, and the Scriptures, speak of another category of people—those who have had an opportunity for salvation, and have consciously rejected it. They are called the “incorrigibly wicked,” and are characterized by the rich man of Luke 16, in the parable about Lazarus and the rich man.

Notice the clear statements of Paul concerning the first resurrection: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order [there is a sequence of events, a chronological order of events concerning the resurrections]: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:22, 23).

Many details are given concerning this first great resurrection of the “dead in Christ.” Jesus said: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars [meteorites] shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds [these are living human beings, Christians who are engaged in accomplishing the work of God on this earth], from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31).

Notice a corroborating scripture: “For I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep [dead], that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which also sleep in Jesus [the dead in Christ] will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain [the “elect,” who shall be gathered from all over the world by His angels] unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).

He is coming “with clouds,” and the dead in Christ are to meet Him “in the air.” Look up air in any encyclopedia. You will find it is the material mantle of gaseous substances, such as hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, ozone, and many other gases which make up our earth’s atmosphere.

By way of comparison, if you have a small desk-sized globe of the world, the transparent lacquer finish on your globe is thicker than the actual mantle of air that surrounds our world.

Jesus is coming back to this earth.

The living saints are not taken to heaven at His coming, nor are the “dead in Christ” taken to heaven at His coming. He is coming again, not awaiting, in heaven, the arrival of souls, or of saints.

Notice: “Behold the Day of the Lord cometh…I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle…Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations [see Revelation 19:11-21], as when He fought in the day of battle: And His feet shall stand IN THAT DAY upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east…And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one” (Zechariah 14:1-9).

Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth to rule it with a rod of iron (Isaiah 2:2-4; Isaiah 11:4-16; Revelation 2:26, 3:21; Micah 4). When His startled disciples watched Him depart this earth, as He was literally being taken up into the air, and disappearing into the clouds overhead, the very first message to ever come down to this earth after Jesus went to heaven was: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall SO COME IN LIKE MANNER AS YE HAVE SEEN HIM GO into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

He is coming with clouds, into the lower atmosphere of this earth, and will continue His descent until He stands upon the Mount of Olives. Not only are the “dead in Christ” resurrected at the moment of Christ’s return, but the living saints are miraculously changed.

Notice how Paul, in the famous “resurrection chapter” of the Bible, puts it: “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [die] but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump [at the exact moment of Christ’s return], for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

So at the very moment Jesus Christ arrives on this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords, the “dead in Christ” are resurrected, caught up into the clouds, and are transported by Christ’s angels to meet the returning Christ in the air.

At the very same moment, those living saints in whom the Spirit of God dwells will be changed from mortal to immortal; from flesh to spirit; from human to divine, and will likewise be caught up into the air, to meet the descending Christ over the Mount of Olives.

His feet will stand in that very day on the Mount of Olives, a short walk from Jerusalem! With Him will be all the great men and women of the Bible, from Seth to Noah; from Moses to Elijah; from John the Baptist to Paul. Also with Him will be millions of people you and I have never known—people who lived their Christian lives in the valleys of Europe during the Middle Ages; people who were persecuted, perhaps put to death, for their faith in Christ.

Such is the Bible description of the first great resurrection. Now, we knowwho is resurrected when Christ returns. We know the living saints will bechanged in the batting of an eyelash, and that they will not precede the dead in Christ, but that all will be caught up at the same time, the time of the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and the Second Coming of Christ.

But what of the second resurrection of which Christ spoke. What of those who have never had an opportunity for salvation, who have never heard the gospel, never had a chance to either believe it, or reject it?

After all, the vast bulk of the world’s population falls into this category. Christ said there would come a resurrection of “judgment.”

The Second Great Resurrection

Jesus Christ may well have spoken a word in the Aramaic language which would have been translated, “they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.” The word in John 5:29 is krisis in the Greek language, and means “a decision for or against; a tribunal, justice, accusation, condemnation, damnation, judgment.”

His statement could easily have included both the “second resurrection” to judgment and the third resurrection to destruction, of which you will shortly read, but primarily indicated the second resurrection, which will be the greatest resurrection of the dead in all history, a resurrection for the purpose of “judgment.”

What is judgment?

First, remember that a judgment is not a sentencing! In a trial, there is the trial phase, or the “judgment” phase, and then, if a person is found guilty, a “sentencing.” Many people confuse the two.

Millions have assumed all their lives that in the “judgment” day, it is as if God, on a great throne, has gathered before Him countless millions of people. As each fearful, apprehensive person approaches His throne, angels are thumbing through “books,” which supposedly contain a terrible record of every dirty, rotten, shameful thing the trembling person has done. A written record is there, proving what a terrible sinner or, in some cases, a good Christian, this person has been. Often as not, as this favored myth goes, God slams a gavel down on His desk, and a huge hole opens up beneath the feet of the unfortunate wretch who has just had all his dirty linen exposed before God and Christ, millions of angels, and the millions of people waiting their turn.

With a terrible shriek, the convicted sinner plunges down to hell! Then, perhaps the next person is told: “You get to go to heaven!”

How many stories are there about “Saint Peter and the pearly gates”? With a resounding “whoosh!” up he goes. But why go to “heaven” when apparently God is right there before him? Obviously, those who concocted this mythological scene forgot a few important details.

But all this is pure myth—superstition mixed with some of grandma’s applesauce.

The judgment of which the Bible speaks takes place over a lifetime, not in a few seconds.

You and I are said to be under judgment right now. Each day we are judged by our innermost thoughts, our actions, and our words.

How are we being judged?

Peter wrote: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God [the church Jesus built]: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17, 18).

We are judged by the words of God’s revelation to mankind, the Bible. The word Bible comes from the Greek biblios. It means “books.” Standing by itself, the word Bible connotes nothing holy or sacred. Only when we say “Holy Bible” are we truly referring to the sacred Scriptures. God’s Word is like a sharp, two-edged sword that discerns even the intent and innermost thought of the human heart (Hebrews 4:12). It is God’s Word which judges us.

The word judgment is used many times in God’s Word to connote “fairness” and “equity,” as well as “discernment” between right and wrong. Notice some examples: “Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually” (Hosea 12:6).

The term is used both positively, as in discernment and fairness, and negatively, when men pervert judgment. Amos wrote: “Seek the Eternal, and ye shall live; lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood [a bitter thing], and leave off righteousness in the earth … for I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right … seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Eternal, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate [among the elders; the officials, the courts]: it may be that the Eternal God will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph” (Amos 6-15; excerpts).

Now, when will this greatest resurrection in all of history; the resurrection to judgment, or discernment, or trial, occur?

Notice how John described the glorious first resurrection, and then immediately described the second great general resurrection:

“But the REST OF THE DEAD lived not again until the thousand years were finished…” (Revelation 20:5). As we have seen from many, many scriptures, the first resurrection takes place at the precise instant of the Second Coming of Christ. At that event, the living saints are changed in a “moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” and caught up together with the “dead in Christ” who are resurrected to meet the descending Christ in the air.

In that same day, they all descend to the Mount of Olives. Jesus Christ will establish His Kingdom, and rule this world with a rod of iron for one thousand years. Read Revelation 5:10; 2:26; and 3:21.

But the “rest of the dead,” including all the billions of human beings who never so much as heard the name of Jesus Christ, “lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”

As we have read, it is at the end of the millennial reign of Christ and the saints (who are born into the God Family at the first resurrection) when the “rest of the dead” are to come forth from their graves.

These are the unsaved, the countless hundreds of millions and billions of human beings who lived in places like Irkutsk, Afghanistan, Niger, Rwanda, India, China, Japan; who lived from the time before the Flood of Noah until the time of the Battle of Armageddon. They are the Huns, the Magyars, the Celts, the Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, and the Toltecs. They are the ancient tribes of Africa, and the Vikings of Norway and Iceland.

Notice the biblical picture: “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great [the masses, peasants and farmers, together with the rich, kings and emperors] stand before God: and the books [Greek: biblios] were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged [remember, being “judged” is not being sentenced!] out of those things which were written in the books [Greek: biblios], according to their works” (Revelation 20:11, 12).

Your God is consistent. He says He does not change (Malachi 3:6). The Bible says: “Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

How is God judging His own people today?

He is judging them according to the Bible, which merely means “books.” It is the “books” of divine writ, the holy Scriptures, which judge us. God tells us we are being judged daily from the pages of His holy Word!

God is not going to judge differently, following the Millennium. He does not change. He is the same.

These countless millions of unsaved, ignorant, oftentimes savage people, who were in the most primitive, darkened state of Satan-inspired idolatry, are going to learn about God; they are going to learn in the same way you are learning, by hearing about, reading, studying, and being taught from the Word of God!

Millions of them lived during a time when human sacrifice to pagan gods was carried out! They are going to be re-educated, brought to a perfect knowledge of God and His purpose for mankind. They will have plenty oftime to learn about God and His way of life.

Notice: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy” (Isaiah 65:17, 18).

Clearly, this scripture tells us that memories of the old world, the sin-sick, crime-ridden, disease-infested, war-torn world in which you and I live today, “shall not be remembered, nor come to mind.” If this is literal, and not merely metaphor, it indicates God will obliterate bad memories.

Though the following scriptures refer to a period of time called the “Great White Throne Judgment,” they give us a pattern God will use concerning the lifespan of humans in the Millennium—the amount of time available for people to learn, and to practice, God’s way of life.

“There shall be no more thence an infant of days; for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isaiah 65:20).

More on this one-hundred-year period later. For now, notice that God has decreed that after one hundred years, if a person is still unrepentant, still unyielding to God’s laws, still stiff-necked and hardhearted, and living in sin, he will be “accursed,” which means condemned. This truly IS a “sentencing”!

He is judged from God’s Word during a one-hundred-year lifetime. If he or she is still refusing to obey God, to repent and be saved at the end of this time, a sentence is handed down. The sentence is death (Romans 6:23).

Notice it: “For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven: and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Eternal of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1).

Jesus said, in explaining the parable of the wheat and the tares to His disciples: “The field is the world [notice, it is not the church!]: the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares [a weed, sometimes called “cheat wheat”] are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:38-43).

Christ spoke of Gehenna fire. The term comes from a valley just outside the old city of Jerusalem, which served, anciently, as a town dump. Originally owned by the family of “Hinnom,” or “Gehenna,” as some scholars believe, this narrow valley was a place of “perpetual fires.” Today, such practices are extremely rare in modern, developed countries. The stench from constantly smoldering refuse, garbage, and the like is intolerable.

But over two thousand years ago, just such fires continually burned in the piles of refuse, garbage, and discarded material in the valley of Hinnom. Some have proposed that, in the case of convicted criminals who had committed some great crimes and had been adjudged unworthy of decent burial, after being put to death by stoning, their battered bodies would be thrown into the perpetual fires of Hinnom.

Jesus used this noxious place as a type, or an example, of the dreaded “Gehenna fire” which shall destroy the incorrigibly wicked. Read Matthew 13:49, 50.

Jesus used two different words which are translated “hell” into the English language. The most common word is hades in the Greek, and this word has nothing to do whatsoever with fires, or heat, or burning. It means, simply, “the grave.”

Here is the proof. Notice what Jesus said about Capernaum, which had haughtily rejected His teachings; “And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell [Greek: hades]: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee” (Matthew 11:23, 24).

Briefly, the word hell in English comes from an old Nordic name for a false, pagan god, deriving from their superstitions about the “underworld of the dead.” It was hel, or behelian. As late as the 1930s many American farmers still spoke of placing their potatoes in “hell” after harvesting. “Hell” merely meant a dark hole in the ground. It is the erroneous word used for the Greek word hades which should have always been translated “the grave.”

But Jesus also spoke of a real “hellfire,” which He called “Gehenna”!

Notice: “And if your right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Gehenna” (Matthew 5:29). Here, I left the untranslated original word Christ used in place. The English-language Bible says “hell.” But Christ’s audience knew immediately what He meant. He referred to the noxious garbage dump outside Jerusalem, with its fires which consumed trash as well as an occasional body of an animal, or a criminal.

As an aside, it is important to note that Christ spoke by way of analogy, or in metaphor, and not literally. How do we know this? Simply by comparing scripture with scripture; by allowing the Word of God to interpret itself, without attempting to put our own meaning into it.

Since our bodies are the “temple of the Holy Spirit,” (Romans 6:13; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20), and the Bible absolutely forbids disfiguring or maiming our bodies, it is clear Jesus meant something else.

Obviously, He was showing how some human appetites, some desires, some passions, are as difficult to overcome, are such a part of some people, that rejecting them is like “pulling eye teeth,” or gouging out an eye, or cutting off a hand.

It is also obvious that if a kleptomaniac (a compulsive thief) cut off his hand, he could still steal with the other hand; obvious that, if a person committed sins with the eye, he could still commit the same sins with the other eye.

The most important point to be made is that Jesus Christ said those who fail to overcome sin by the power of God, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, will be cast into Gehenna fire, there to be “burnt up,” completely destroyed.

Notice the remainder of the passage you read in Malachi: “And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 4:3). Gehenna fire consumes the bodies of unrepentant sinners, they do not burn forever.

A One Hundred Year Lifespan

Clearly, God shows us through Isaiah’s 65th chapter that He will grant a one-hundred-year lifespan to human beings during the Great White Throne Judgment period, following the Millennium.

There is simply no other way to understand the verses we read. Notice it again: “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days…” (Isaiah 65:20). This reveals a very important and essential truth. Many scriptures show that during the Millennium the human family will continue to marry and bear children. Many scriptures portray the happy, glorious Kingdom of God, in which families and children are present (see Isaiah 11:4-9; Ezekiel 37:24-26; Zechariah 8:5).

However, during this one-hundred-year period, those who are resurrected as infants, and all the little children born during the last months of the Millennium who have not yet matured, will be the last generation of the human family.

From the moment of the beginning of the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11, 12), no more babies are conceived or born.

“There shall be no more thence [there, during this period] an infant of days…” no more one-day-old, or two-week-old babies.

Also, there will be no elderly of mid-seventies, or in their eighties, who die. There will not be an “old man that hath not filled his days,” meaning lived to be one hundred.

Notice the rest of this important scripture: “For the child shall die an hundred years old, but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isaiah 65:20).

Obviously, these are two different categories. The child who dies at age one hundred is not classified as a “sinner,” so the logical assumption is that the little infant who began to live at the beginning of this one-hundred-year period of judgment, and who arrives at his one hundredth birthday, simply dies of old age. Then what happens?

One of two possibilities, both completely substantiated in scripture; both already set as precedents by God Himself. One, he is either allowed to die the first physical death (for it is “appointed to men once to die”) and then is instantly resurrected from the dead; or, two, he is changed from flesh to spirit, from human to divine, in an instant, in the “twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) at the moment of the completion of the one-hundred-year judgment period.

Of course, none of this really concerns you and me, except as a matter of information, a desire to satisfy curiosity about “what happens to other people,” or to our loved ones.

And that curiosity, that concern for loved ones, is what we must now come to understand.

Millions have been left in fear and worry over the fate of beloved family members. They have been deceived by the false teachings of the “immortality of the soul” and the “ever-burning hell,” or by vague, musty old concepts of “purgatory.”

I was once asked by a neighbor of mine, not a member of God’s church, about his father. He described his dad as a very “good and decent” man. His dad had worked all his life for the U.S. Postal Service. He had been a good father, a provider for his family of four. He had been faithful to his wife, and had not been a gambler, or a drunkard. His main passion in life, after his early shift delivering mail, was to simply go to one of his favorite lakes and fish.

“But what happened to him when he died?” my neighbor asked. “I know he was not a Christian. He almost never went to church except when my mother would beg him to on a special occasion. But he didn’t cuss, or drink, or smoke, or anything like that. So, since he wasn’t `saved,’ as they say, but yet he was a `good man,’ did he go to hell?”

Literally millions of puzzled relatives have wondered about such things. And in the answer to these precise questions is some of the very best news you could ever hear! 

To understand, you need to know what your Bible says about the state of the dead.

What is it Like to be Dead?

God says: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20).

God’s Word says men die in the same fashion as cows, horses, dogs, or sheep. Their condition in death is the same. They both owe their lives to the oxygen in the air. When they die, they both decay, and return to the soil from which they come.

Are the dead conscious in some way?

“For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything,neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them [their memory—their conscious thought] is forgotten” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

David knew this. He knew that man returns to the “dust,” to the elements of the soil, from which we came. He wrote: “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit [Hebrew: sheol, usually translated “hell,” erroneously]? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth?” (Psalm 30:9).

Thus, your Bible shows that when humans die, they are no longer conscious. They have no thoughts, no memory, no awareness. The Bible describes death as the deepest kind of sleep—black, stygian oblivion—complete unawareness of the passage of time; no pain, no worry, no memory.

Notice: “While I live I will praise the Eternal: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth [he expires], he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish” (Psalm 146:2-4).

It is not the clever catch-phrase of some theologian to refer to death as “sleep.”

God’s Word refers to the dead in Christ as those who “sleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Notice some other examples: “For this cause [not discerning the Lord’s body in connection with the Lord’s Supper, or Communion] many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30).

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [die], but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

The dead know not anything, your Bible says. They have no memory. They are characterized as being in the most profound sleep, with no conscious thought, no awareness. At the instant of the resurrection, they will once again be thinking, remembering, conscious beings. To them, it will have been as if, from the moment of death to the moment of the resurrection, only a fraction of a second, the twinkling of an eye, had passed!

Millions of them will say: “What happened just then?” Millions will not even know they were dead, for millions have died so suddenly there was no time for thought, or even pain!

If you have any questions at all about whether the dead are conscious, they should have been put to rest by these divinely-revealed truths.

The Human Spirit

Look at what God’s Word says about we human beings, about the human spirit God has given us, which makes us so far superior to animals; which gives us mind, conscience, depth of feeling, and character.

David prayed: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth” (Psalm 31:5).

There are two Hebrew words translated “spirit.” The most commonly used word is ruwach, which means “wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible [or even violent] exhalation; fig. life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extens. a region of the sky; by resemblance, spirit, but only of a rational being [include its expression and functions]:—air, anger, blast, breath, cool, courage, mind, quarter, side, spiritual, vain, whirlwind.”

David used an entirely different word in his psalm. It is neshamah, pronounced “ne-shawmaw,” and means “a puff, i.e. wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration, intellect, or an animal; blast, breath, inspiration, soul, spirit.”

The first word is most commonly translated “soul,” but is also rendered “spirit” in many places. It refers, usually, to the animal life of man, or the consciousness.

The second word is used more of the intellect, or the innermost psyche, and is correctly rendered, “spirit.”

Notice another example of neshamah, where the word obviously means the innermost consciousness, thought, and intellect of man: “The spirit of man is the candle [light] of the Eternal, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Proverbs 20:27). Here, the word has to do with conscience; with the human character; with deep thought, introspection, meditation, philosophy; with our decision-making ability; accountability.

While man and animal “have all one breath”—that is, the same physical, chemical existence, supported by air, food, and water—they are completely different.

Man has a mind, while animals have brains.

Animals are creatures of instinct, but have no power to know or to wonder about their origin, about who, what, and why they are, and what is their destiny.

Animals have limited ability to reason. Experiments with dolphins, poodles, and chimpanzees have proved this. In one experiment, a dog trapped in a basement was observed to pile boxes atop each other until it had a platform high enough to the small window near the ceiling to escape.

But beyond this very limited ability, animals are creatures of automatically-programmed instinct. They have no creative ability. They cannot speculate, philosophically, the origin of things.

But God has placed a spirit in man—the human spirit. It is this spiritual essence, which is linked to the frontal lobes of the human brain and is conscious only when the brain is conscious, that gives man a mind as opposed to mere animal brain.

A little colt, only minutes after birth, staggers to its wobbly feet and immediately goes directly to the mare’s teats to suckle. Somehow, by mere instinct, and by sight, sound, and smell, the tiny newborn animal knows exactly what to do.

Baby dolphins are born underwater. Immediately, they begin swimming, go to the surface, and take their first breath. Hundreds, no, thousands of examples could be cited from birds, fish, insects, and other animals of how automatically preprogrammed instinct causes them to survive.

Consider a newly-born human baby.

It is completely helpless. It would lie within inches of its mother’s breast and starve to death if it were not cared for by the mother. It is the most helpless of all creatures.

Yet, consider the potential of that tiny human brain. Little by little, as the brain is programmed—as the baby bonds to its mother, father, brothers, and sisters—the baby learns.

Animals are capable only of squeaks, yells, barks, whinnys, bawling, calls, and grunts. While many animals, like elk or whales, are very vocal and utilize a wide range of sounds to communicate simple thoughts to each other, such as danger or feeding, the human mind is capable of learning language, with thousands of words, to express thought.

Any in-depth study into the human brain is a journey through stupendous, awesome, mind-boggling data; an introduction to the most incredibly complex organism known to mankind. How we think, reason, deduce, ponder, imagine, and create is almost incomprehensible.

You can know of nothing that is superior to your own mind, unless you are willing to admit other minds are better educated than yours, that they have stored more knowledge and experience.

But the human mind is the most incredibly complex thing of which we can come to know by the five physical senses. Could our marvelous minds have come into being by lesser intelligence?

Your own intellect demands the answer “No!” Only a vastly superior intelligence could have thought out, designed, and then created the human mind and spirit. Now, think with that marvelous mind God gave you.

It required two parents to produce you.

Your father’s life, in the form of a microscopic spermatozoon, united with your mother’s life, in the form of a fertile egg. At the instant of conception, you and I were much, much smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

Yet, in that tiniest of beginnings was preprogrammed, in the DNA (for “deoxyribonucleic acid”), the genetic code which determined your sex, general height, weight, and shape; the color of your hair and eyes, color and texture of your skin, shape of your skull, and length of your fingers and toes—the characteristics which would make you “you” during your life. You would inherit, through this miraculous, microscopic beginning, qualities, proclivities, talents, and abilities from your family, including whether or not you are musical or tone deaf, whether you tend to be artistic or mechanical, and so on.

While it has been demonstrated that environment is a powerful shaper of character, the genetic code from your two parents is the most powerful of the two,

We take human life for granted. Yet, when we study into the incredible reproductive capacity of humans—how, we were conceived, formed in the womb, and born—we are left with a sense of awe and wonder.

David said to God: “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written [here, knowing nothing about DNA, David is in awe of the developing human fetus], which in continuance were fashioned when there were as yet none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:14-17).

David was no doubt considering all the functions of the human body, contemplating the human eye, the ear, the sense of smell and touch, and the marvelous way in which all his vital organs contributed to his daily experience of living.

He no doubt meditated about the skeletal framework of our bodies, the musculature, with all the tendons, ligaments, and sinew connecting muscle to muscle and muscle to bone. He thought on the marvelous coordination of limb, hands, feet, and torso; how incredible it had been when he had become so proficient with a sling so as to hurl a rounded stone squarely into the forehead of the giant Goliath—the only unprotected place on His body. He no doubt thought of the awesome athletic feats of men in his army, of all the marvels of the human body.

When he said, “which in continuance were fashioned when there were as yet none of them,” he no doubt was pondering the blood flow from mother to fetus; how it could be that, from a microscopic beginning, bone, tissue, muscle, the eye, the ear, the hands, and the feet could form.

David was in awe of God as Creator. He recognized the miracle that the human body presents to our view; the miracle of human life and reproduction.

It is only through the union between spirit and brain that such introspective thoughts are possible! Animals cannot contemplate their origins. Animals do not marvel at their ability to see, or hear. They cannot praise their Maker.

The human spirit is present from the instant of conception!

When did the Logos (John 1:1), who was the “Word,” become the tiny, microscopic zygote which was to become Jesus Christ? At the instant the Holy Spirit engendered that very Life that was God within the womb of Mary!

Jesus Christ did not “become Christ” at the moment of birth, but nine long months before when He was conceived by the power of God’s Holy Spirit!

Jeremiah was known of God before His birth! Other examples are contained in Scripture, including Cyrus, the Persian monarch, who was named four hundred years before he was born, which absolutely prove that the obscene process of abortion is murder of a human life! John the Baptist was conceived by a miraculous intervention from God; was foreordained to His mission prior to his birth! To imagine that aborting John or Jesus would merely have been a “choice” of a young woman is so unthinkably obscene as to defy human rationality.

There was never a moment—not a single second—when the Holy Spirit was not present with Jesus Christ.

Notice how Paul speaks of the human spirit and its connection with the Holy Spirit: “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear: but ye have received the spirit of adoption [Greek: “sonship,” meaning more than legal adoption, but meaning actually being the literal offspring], whereby we cry, Abba, [Hebrew word for “Father”], Father. The Spirit itself [God’s Holy Spirit] beareth witness with our spirit [our human spirit], that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:15-17).

These are vitally important truths—profound scriptures.

Let’s understand what God’s Word is telling us.

Why God is the “Father” of Christians

It was the fertile egg of our mothers and the living spermatozoon of our fathers that “bore witness,” once united together, that we were to become the children of our parents!

Here, God shows us that it is the living human spirit connected to our physical brain, together with the living, Holy Spirit of God, our Father, that proves we are GOD’S CHILDREN! 

The Father is called “the Father” because He begets children. He is reproducing after His own kind!

Did you notice that brief sentence? Did you think about it?

Creation was not completed in the Garden of Eden, it was only begun.

God, who is Elohim reveals Himself to us through Jesus Christ as the Father of us all!

As a marvelous part of the pattern of life itself, in all of its forms, God ordained that life begets life, and that life reproduces life of the same kind!

All life comes from previously living creatures of the same kind. Your human, physical life was only possible because two living, human lives came together in conception. You did not come from one previous life of the same kind, but two.

In the same fashion, our heavenly Father begets children through the power of His Spirit, linking His Spirit with our living human spirit, so that a new spirit being is begotten!

This new “creature” is REAL. It is alive. It bears the characteristics of its Father, who is God, and its human life, which is the human spirit inextricably linked to our physical brain.

God does not place His Spirit in mere carnal flesh.

God does not place His Spirit in our kneecaps, or our elbows, or our feet or hands. He places His Spirit in direct union with our human spirit, so that spirit life with Spirit life becomes a new, never-before spirit life!

Scientists know the human brain is divided into various segments, and that each performs different functions. We are all familiar with the fact that a blow on the head may produce memory loss, yet fail to impair any of the other functions of the brain.

They know that the process of thought—the ability of our minds to ponder, philosophize, imagine, wonder, contemplate, create, and decide—is in the frontal lobes, behind our eyes and forehead.

It is in this portion of our brain that the character resides; the ability to feel remorse, sadness, happiness, joy, shame, chagrin, anger, jealousy, lust, greed; the ability to repent, and feel sorrow over wrongdoing; the ability to think, plan, and reason. Our personality, aside from our ability to see, hear, walk, and talk, is controlled by these frontal lobes.

God’s Holy Spirit does not affect our memory, or improve our athletic ability, or improve our hearing or eyesight. It unites with our human spirit to change our character, our very deepest and innermost psyche, our personality!

You and I did not get here by only one life, which begat non-living tissue! No, it required two lives, united together, to produce our one physical life. So it is with God’s process of begetting children.

Now, notice the truth about this “new creature” which is begotten within the human mind. Paul wrote: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts [the “heart” spoken of in the Bible always means the character; the ability of our minds to think, reason, and to feel remorse], to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:6, 7).

What is your most precious possession?

We deeply pity those who lost one, or two, or even all four limbs through an accident or in war. It is important we understand this. One may say, “I lost my arm.” It was my arm; it belonged to me. It was part of my body, but it was not me. I am still here. I did not think, plan, reason, feel, or repent with my arm.

A person may say, “I lost both my legs in Vietnam.” Perhaps he now moves about on prosthetic legs, and with canes, or crutches. But he is still here!

Carried to perhaps an ultimate, ridiculous conclusion, the human body is capable of losing all four limbs, several vital organs, eyesight and hearing, capable of being reduced to a piteous trunk of a body, yet the individual is still alive; the personality is intact; the conscious, thinking person is still there.

Paul said we have “this TREASURE,” this priceless, precious, wondrous gift of eternal life, of salvation in “earthen vessels.” We, our human bodies and minds, are the “earthen vessels.” We are like clay pots, which contain something incalculably precious.

Paul continued: “For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man [the new creature in Christ; a newly-begotten spirit being] is renewed day by day. For our light affliction [tests and trials of life], which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. For while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:7-18, excerpted).

The New Creature in Christ Dwells in a Temporary Body

Paul continued: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernaclewere dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

Notice the language. It is “our earthly house,” but it is not “us.” “We” dwell in this “earthly house,” meaning our fragile, temporal human bodies. While our bodies are very much a part of us, they are not “us.” We dwell inside our bodies, in the frontal lobes of our brains. The new creature in Christ is, in a sense, living in the host body, our physical “earthly house,” our temporary, physical, chemical existence.

But the “house not made with hands” is a new, spiritual body, created of God, to be inherited at the resurrection, or at the time of the instantaneous change (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

Notice what God says about this new body: “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up?’ and `With what body do they come?” (1 Corinthians 15:35). Here, Paul anticipates many of our questions: “What if someone is buried at sea and eaten of sharks? What about cremation? What if someone is burnt up in a fire? What about those who are disintegrated in explosions or airplane crashes?”

God answers: “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened [renewed to life], except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed its own body” (1 Corinthians 15:36-38).

Consider a single kernel of corn. When planted in the soil, the tiny germ that contains the microscopic design of the corn plant is fertilized by the decaying endosperm, which is made up of soft starch and hard starch. The germ begins to sprout, feeding on the starchy endosperm. A root appears, then more. Then, a sprout pushes aside the soil, and reaches for the sun. Eventually, the tiny germ grows into a stalk, perhaps as much as eight feet tall, producing two, three, four or more ears of corn. Each ear may have many hundreds of corn kernels.

The single kernel, planted in the soil, has now produced thousands of new kernels. These are new wealth. They have never existed before, and will never exist again.

In the cycle of life in plants, as in humans, each new living thing is new wealth from the soil; a first time ever, never to be again, living entity.

As the glorious eight-foot tall cornstalk, with perhaps four big yellow ears of corn containing hundreds of kernels each bears little resemblance to the tiny germ in a dying corn kernel, so it is that our decaying (or burnt, or disintegrated) human bodies will be incomparable to the glorious spiritual body which God will give us.

Notice: “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one [the glory of the stars and planets], and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory [in brightness, size, and beauty]. So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:35-42).

Obviously, in the Kingdom of God, there will be spiritual beings of different glory, different splendor, brightness, and different responsibility.

This fits in exactly with Jesus’ parables of the talents and pounds, where each person is given reward according to His own accomplishments. One is given rulership over ten cities, another over five (Luke 19:11-27). See also 1 Corinthians 3:9-15, where a clear distinction is made between salvation, as God’s free, loving gift, and “work,” which results in various degrees of reward.

This helps us understand the difference between reward, which has to do with the degree of overcoming according to our natural individual abilities and God’s help through the Holy Spirit, and salvation, which is the loving free gift of God, and has nothing to do with reward.

Reward is “according to their works,” while salvation is free, the gift of God. As the stars differ, so will newly-born spirit beings differ in splendor and glory, and in degrees of responsibility, in God’s Kingdom.

God clearly shows that David will be king over all Israel, while each of the twelve apostles (Matthias replacing Judas) will be lesser kings, under David, but judging the twelve tribes.

Paul continues: “It [the human earthen vessel, or fleshly body] is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

There is simply no question about the dogmatic, plain, obvious assertion of fact in these scriptures! There is a natural body; that is you and I, our physical bodies in this life. And there is a spiritual body, which is the spirit life, the new creation of SPIRIT which shall inherit God’s Kingdom.

“And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul [Greek: psuche, the same as the Hebrew nephesh, meaning “creature,” or “living being”]; the last Adam [Christ] was made a quickening Spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth [physical, mortal, temporary, made of flesh], earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy” (1 Corinthians 15:45-47).

You and I are like carbon copies of our parents. We are fleshly, like them. We bear their characteristics. We are composed of the same materials. We have many of their proclivities, talents, and abilities.

Now, notice! “And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly” (verse 48).

Is there any remote doubt in your mind about what you just read? This is plainly telling us we will be members of God’s own Family, that we will “be like Him”!

John wrote: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear [in the resurrection] WE SHALL BE LIKE Him for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

Millions suppose that salvation means “souls” wafting up to “heaven.” Millions assume we humans, in the resurrection, will be at a level far below our Father. Perhaps we will be like an old hound dog, who gazes adoringly up into the eyes of His master, then thumps his tail on the floor as he lolls before the fireplace. We will be, they think, on some level like angels, like spiritual drones or automatons.

No, we will be born of God, and we will be “like Him,” for we shall “see Him as He is”!

Paul said: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy [we are made in the image of our physical parents], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:49).

Can anything be plainer?

The glory that we are to inherit, the spiritual bodies we are to inherit, will be made in the image of our spiritual Father, and we shall be CHANGED!

Notice: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [again and again, the Bible characterizes the state of the dead as a deep, profound, consciousless sleep!], but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

The “corruptible” body is no more. Instead, God gives each one of His children a new, brilliant, incorruptible, eternal SPIRIT body.

Peter also spoke of the new “creature in Christ” dwelling in a temporary “booth,” or “kiosk,” or “tabernacle.” He wrote: “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet [fitting], as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance” (2 Peter 1:12, 13).

Peter knew that he was a new creature in Christ, a begotten son of God, who was only temporarily dwelling in an “earthen vessel,” a human, physical body, which he called a tabernacle, which means “temporary dwelling place.”

He continued: “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shown me” (verse 14). Peter knew the time of his martyrdom was approaching, that he would be killed for the sake of Christ. He had faith, however, to know that it was only like “putting off a garment,” or “putting off a tabernacle,” it was not the end. Peter himself would survive, though remaining in a deep, profound “sleep” for an indeterminate period of time.

But since “the dead know not anything,” the new creature in Christ, the converted son of God that Peter had become, would be completely unaware of the passage of any time!

When he is resurrected at the Second Coming of Christ, it will be to Peter, as to thousands of others, as if it all happened “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”

He concluded, speaking of his approaching death: “Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance” (2 Peter 1:15).

Our human bodies are but temporary dwelling places, subject to aging, to injury, sickness, and death. While we are alive in the flesh, we have a “window of opportunity” to repent of sin; to become convicted of having broken God’s holy laws; to receive baptism, and the laying on of hands to receive God’s Holy Spirit.

When our human spirit is begotten by God’s Holy Spirit, a “new creature in Christ” is begotten. It is REAL. It is as real, as absolute, as certain, as factual as your own human existence!

The Reality of Our Spiritual Life

You are real.

How did you get here? By the uniting of your father’s life-giving cells with your mother’s fertile egg. At the instant of conception, you began! Only a second earlier, and you did not exist! Millions of potential brothers and sisters could have been conceived. They were not. They failed. But you succeeded! You are the result. You are here because two lives came together to produce your one life.

Your parents did not sit down on the couch one day, take out a note pad, and begin drawing up the requirements for a baby.

“Let’s see now,” your father did not say, “It should be a boy, and we would like it to have blond hair, blue eyes, and ten fingers and ten toes. Oh yes, and eyes, and ears, and all the vital organs….” Your mother did not say, “Oh, I’d rather have a girl—let’s make it a girl.” They did not then go to the baby bureau downtown, put in their application, and wait for the stork!

Yet, many deceived persons believe, by a casual assumption, that they can inherit the Kingdom of God by just such a nonsensical fashion!

They hear a message about God, about doctrine. Perhaps they come across seeming irrefutable proof that Easter is pagan. So they study, and read, and take notes, and do some research. Little by little, they become convinced, through painstaking study and research, that Easter is indeed pagan.

So they then add that knowledge to their repertoire of truth, their storehouse of belief. Then, they might, with a great deal of skepticism and begrudging reluctance, study for months to prove to themselves that God’s Ten Commandments have not been done away, that sin is the breaking of God’s laws (1 John 3:4), and that repentance is shame and deep remorse over having been a lawbreaker! Then, they add that bit of truth to their growing storehouse of knowledge.

Eventually, they have amassed a very impressive amount of biblical knowledge. They know a good bit about biblical history, about prophecy, about doctrine.

Sometimes, especially when they come face to face with the seventh-day Sabbath, they become cynical, reluctant, even resentful, of the “new truth” they are learning. Finally, after months, or even years, of “proving” things to themselves, they believe they must accept the things they have learned.

Believe it or not, such people are no more qualified for the Kingdom of God at that point than Satan the devil!

What a shocking statement! Why assert such? Simply because, when it comes to the Bible and doctrine, Satan KNOWS IT ALL!

Satan could quote Scripture to you forwards and backwards! Satan knows all the doctrinal truths of God! But he is in rebellion against God, and will never repent!

You can no more inherit the Kingdom of God by slowly, a step at a time, studying doctrine than you could make out a list, go to the “bureau,” and have a baby!

It is only when we repent of sin (Acts 2:38), then are baptized, and then receive God’s Holy Spirit that we become God’s children, begotten of our spiritual Father, a “new creature in Christ”! Once this “new creature in Christ” is begotten within our minds, it is every bit as REAL as you were REAL when you were a developing fetus in your mother’s womb!

Just as you were nourished by your mother’s bloodstream, so the “new creature in Christ” must be nourished by the Word of God, by Bible studies, by sermons, by studying and reading, by Christian fellowship, and by overcoming hurtful attitudes and non-Christian thoughts.

We must “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” until the moment when we reach the point of spiritual rebirth!

Jesus said: “Ye must be born again,” and showed that the new birth is a spirit birth—being changed from flesh to spirit, from human to divine!

The Third Resurrection

So far, we have seen there are two great categories of human beings who will be involved in the first and second resurrections.

The first resurrection (Revelation 20:6) is at the moment of Christ’s arrival into the clouds above this earth, the moment of Christ’s angels catching up living Christians and the resurrected saints (Matthew 24:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). This is the resurrection to life, the resurrection of Christ’s saints, including the apostles, Abraham and the patriarchs, and all the converted Christians who have lived and died.

For one thousand years, Christ will reign as KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS on earth, with millions of other members of the God Family reigning with Him (Revelation 2:26; 3:21; 10:5; 20:4; Isaiah 11: entire chapter; Isaiah 2; Micah 4).

The second resurrection is the greatest of all. It occurs after the one thousand years are finished, and is the resurrection to judgment (Revelation 20:5), when God will allow each individual to live for one hundred years (Isaiah 65:20).

Since God does not change, the millions who come up in this great resurrection will be judged “out of the Biblios,” meaning the Word of God, in the same way God is judging you and me today! God says He “changes not.” Therefore, they will be judged out of the revealed Word of God, the Bible, exactly as you and I are being judged.

It is very likely that the vast majority of all these teeming millions will accept God’s rulership, believe the truth they will be taught, repent of their sins, and receive salvation!

Does this constitute a “second chance”? Absolutely not! These teeming millions never heard a single word of the gospel; they never heard the name of Jesus Christ. Or, at least, they never heard the true gospel; never truly had a full chance to understand the truth of God and respond to that truth in repentance.

This will be their first chance!

A “chance” for salvation is to hear the gospel preached. Being born in a pagan land, then dying in a few days of cholera, when your entire society has never heard the name of Jesus Christ, is not a chance for salvation!

Do you have loved ones who died, not being converted? They are dead now—completely oblivious to the passing of time. The Bible speaks of them as being in the very deepest sleep—completely unconscious. They are NOT LOST! They are merely dead!

God says: “It is given to men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

But there is a third category of humans.

They are the incorrigibly wicked. They are the ones who have consciously rejected God’s way of life; have rejected salvation. They are the ones who WILL not repent!

Notice: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

“Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural brute beasts [like predatory animals, devoid of human feeling, like mercy, forgiveness, and compassion], made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption” (2 Peter 2:9-12).

To “utterly perish” is to be completely destroyed by fire! Christ warned: “And fear not them which kill the body [our temporary tabernacle], but are not able to kill the soul [the Greek word is psuche, which means psyche, or mind; innermost being, where the human spirit resides]: but rather fear Him [God the Father] which is able to destroy both soul [psuche] and body [soma] in hell [Gehenna, God’s destroying fire]” (Matthew 10:28).

When the life cells that became you united in the womb of your mother, what happened to the millions of potential brothers and sisters who could have been conceived? They perished. They died. They were never united with a fertile egg; they never became a “new creature.”

What happens to each human being who refuses his or her “window of opportunity” for salvation? They perish! Notice: “For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Eternal of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of righteousness [Christ] arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves in the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Eternal of hosts” (Malachi 4:1-3).

Now, notice how Peter concluded his statements about the wicked utterly perishing”: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation [conduct] and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 2:9-12).

Many miles beneath our feet, our tectonic plates, with their mountains and valleys, “float” on a vast, seething, white-hot subterranean sea of “magma,” or molten rock.

Several times in the past, God has submerged the continents beneath the waters of the earth. River deltas, coral atolls, and ancient seashores demonstrate that the earth experienced not just two continental inundations, but several.

The two of which we can come to know are those mentioned in Genesis 1 and Genesis 6 and 7. When we are ushered upon the scene in ancient history, the earth is completely covered with water, stygian black, with the sun blotted out by a Venusian-like atmosphere. God’s first act is to “let there be light,” or, to let the light shine upon the earth for the first time in who knows how many thousands, or millions, of years.

Then, He says: “Let the dry land appear.” Thus, the continents were raised, with the waters roaring from their surface, gouging out valleys, forming lakes, cutting deep river channels.

But mankind became totally corrupt within about one-sixth of human history, resorting to every perversion, violence, and lawless act. Cannibalism was rampant. Murder was everywhere.

God then destroyed the world with a flood, saving only Noah and His family.

Notice how this ancient flood is used as a type of the coming destruction of the world by fire: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

These scoffers argue that all events, such as droughts, famines, wars, earthquakes, and the like are but “cyclical.” They sneer at God’s prophecies; they ridicule His servants. They say it is only a repetitious cycle, that all things continue as they always were.

But God says: “For this they WILLINGLY ARE IGNORANT OF, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was [from Adam to Noah], being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth which are now [in the day in which you and I live] by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:5-7). Notice that these verses precede the ones you read above, concerning the elements melting with fervent heat, and the whole earth being destroyed with fire.

Will God simply submerge the continents beneath the molten magma within the earth? It matters not how He accomplishes it, but, at the end of the human family on earth, and at the beginning of the next phase of God’s creation, the remaining incorrigibly wicked (those who have WILLED to reject God’s truth, who have WILLFULLY rebelled against His holy laws, who have refused to repent) will be burnt up.

Notice the famous parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

The parable shows that both Lazarus the poor beggar and the cruel, cold-hearted rich man, who refused to give Lazarus a thin dime, died. Lazarus is said to have been “carried by the angels” into “Abraham’s bosom.” This merely means a “close association with Abraham,” a friendly, warm, intimate contact with this great man. The parable does not say “heaven.”

Then, at the time of the third and final resurrection, the rich man, having died many years earlier, “in hell [hades, meaning “the grave.” This is not the Greek word Gehenna] he lift up his eyes [he becomes alive again, seeing], being in torments [because of what he sees, not because, just yet, of what he feels], and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented” (Luke 16:19-31).

First, the parable says both the rich man and Lazarus died. This ultimate fact, their deaths, must be understood in the light of all the scriptures we have already read (and dozens more we did not) concerning the state of the dead.

The dead are completely oblivious. Unconscious. The “dead know not anything,” and the dead are characterized as being in the most profound, black, unfeeling sleep. The human brain decays and returns to the dust. The human spirit, which has no consciousness apart from the brain, is completely comatose, “asleep.” It is a hard and fast rule of Bible study that a seemingly ambiguous or metaphorical scripture cannot nullify many plain, clear, easily understood scriptures on the same subject.

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man does not nullify all the plain scriptures in your Bible about the state of the dead, about the resurrection to judgment, about the ultimate reality of Gehenna fire.

Notice further that Lazarus did not “go to heaven” but, once resurrected, he was taken to “Abraham’s bosom,” or a close, warm, intimate relationship with Abraham.

The rich man, who died, could only “lift up his eyes,” or become conscious again, in a resurrection.

Which resurrection?

Obviously, this is not the first resurrection, for the rich man is certainly not one of the “dead in Christ.” Obviously, it is not the second resurrection, for the rich man says he is “tormented in this flame.” He sees imminent destruction—horrible DEATH BY FIRE—approaching! Obviously, then, this is the third and final resurrection, when “death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire.”

It is stark terror which causes the rich man’s tongue to cleave to the roof of his mouth. He does not ask Lazarus for a fire engine with powerful hoses: he does not ask for a bucket brigade or casks of water. Instead, he asks only for Lazarus to dip his finger into water to cool the rich man’s tongue.

Is it significant that he dare not ask for more?

During Lazarus’ life of privation and suffering, the rich man would no doubt look out of His window as he chewed on sumptuous, gourmet food, seeing Lazarus lying on the ground with open, weeping sores—the dogs licking His wounds. The rich man would not give Lazarus so much as a penny.

Thus, the rich man symbolizes the cruelty of man, the heartlessness of those who abuse orphans, widows, the sick, and the elderly. He symbolizes those who exploit others; those who are miserly, selfish, calloused. He also typifies the incorrigibly wicked; those who remain unmoved by human suffering!

Now, see further proof of the third and final resurrection.

Notice that after we read of the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11, 12), we read of another great event: “And death and hell [hades, meaning the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14, 15).

Revelation 20 begins with the first resurrection, speaking of the “dead in Christ” and the saints who are instantaneously changed at the Second Coming of Christ. This is the “better” resurrection (Hebrews 11:35); the “firstfruits” of salvation (James 1:18; Revelation 14:4). These are the born-anew members of the Family of Divine ELOHIM (Romans 8:15-17; 15:29; 1 Corinthians 15:50-52), who “lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4).

This is the “resurrection to life” of which Christ spoke (John 5:29), the first resurrection.

But we are then told about the “rest of the dead” who “lived not again until the thousand years are finished” (Revelation 20:5). This is the Great White Throne Judgment period of one hundred years, of which we have read, during which all the billions of human beings in all the nations of the world will come up in a great, general resurrection, and be given a glorious opportunity for salvation.

This leaves one category of human beings which have not been dealt with. The incorrigible. The willfully rebellious. Those who have deliberately, consciously rejected God’s truth, His wonderful way of life, His grace, mercy, and salvation. These are characterized by the rich man of the parable of Luke 16. Jude says of them: “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ …. these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities” (Jude 4-8).

Do those who “creep in unawares” by the flock know what they are doing? Do they know they are “creeps”?

Surely.

Notice that these evil, false teachers twist the grace of God which is God’s loving, undeserved forgiveness, His pardon of our past sins, into “license.” In other words, they deceive God’s people into thinking they have “permission” to break God’s laws. The people then assume that if their leaders say it, and if a few other members of the church nod their heads and go along with it, that it “must be all right.”

They are those who always believe they should “let God work it out.” This is the excuse used by German SS guards, who murdered countless Jews in death camps all over Europe. They were only “following orders.” It was not their responsibility. It was the responsibility of their leaders. Surely, if something were wrong, then it was up to their leaders to straighten it out.

Today, millions believe God’s perfect, holy, righteous Ten Commandments are done away. They advocate, openly breaking God’s Sabbath. They are teaching licentiousness, which is “permission to sin”! The Bible is very clear about their ultimate reward. They are indicted as being among those who have knowingly, and willfully, rejected God’s laws, when they knew, better!

They are resurrected immediately after the Great White Throne Judgment. As we saw, their resurrection is characterized by the ugliest of words, “death and the grave.” When is a grave not a grave? It is not a grave when there is no body present. The Greek word hades means “grave.” But a grave is merely a hole in the ground unless a dead human body is within.

Now, remember what you read about the Great White Throne Judgment of 100 years duration. There is not to be an infant who has not fulfilled His days of 100 years. A sinner, being 100 years of age, shall be “accursed.” After the Millennium, in the great general resurrection, there will be no more human reproduction. God will stop the human reproductive cycle. There will be no more an “infant of days” during this future time.

God will resurrect all human beings who have never heard, or consciously rejected, the gospel, from infants to the very elderly. But there will be no more new births.

But during this period, Satan, who has been hurled far away from the earth in a symbolic “bottomless pit” (Revelation 20:1-3), will be free to influence humanity again.

Christ’s Righteous Punishments for Crime and Sin in His Kingdom

As Jesus Christ establishes His glorious world rule on this earth, He is joined by perhaps a million or two, who constitute the “dead in Christ” and the living who are “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” at the last trump (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

God’s Word tells us we are to be “co-heirs with Christ,” that we are to be “like Him: for we shall see Him as He is” (Romans 8:17; 1 John 3:2). The “new creature in Christ” of which we read is to be born of God, given a spirit body, to become a member of God’s own family!

Millions of deceived, professing Christians absolutely refuse to believe the plain, easily understood statements of God’s Word about the future state of the dead in Christ—the state of being of those who are changed from flesh to spirit in the resurrection.

The Jews accused Jesus Christ of “blasphemy” because He “made Himself equal with God.” To them, such a claim was preposterous.

Yet, your Bible insists that the resurrected saints will be co-heirs with Christ, that they shall be like Him for they will see Him as He is!

Suppose you are named as a co-heir by a long lost millionaire uncle you never knew you had. His estate is worth 100 million dollars. As a co-heir with another relative, how much do you receive? Exactly the same amount as your other relative, or 50 million dollars!

A co-heir shares equally. To be “like Him” means exactly what is says. The beautiful “resurrection chapter” of 1 Corinthians 15 shows converted human beings will be changed from flesh to spirit, from corruptible to incorruptible, from human to divine. Millions suppose that salvation entails becoming some lesser being, perhaps slightly above the angelic realm.

The purely fictional fantasies of many professing Christian churches portray vague images of how it will be in the “last days,” or in the “judgment,” or when people allegedly “get to heaven.” They suppose, vaguely, that the sheer joys of “gazing into the Master’s face,” of living in “heavenly mansions,” or of playing harps and wafting about heaven on angelic wings will be the reward of the saved.

But your Bible plainly shows that God Almighty is reproducing after His own kind! Creation was not completed in Eden, it was only begun. The final, superb masterpiece of God’s creation is the re-creation of His own kind, through begettal with His Spirit, growth to become like Him, and final birth into the spiritual family of God in the resurrection!

You CAN “Take It With You” When You Die

Finally, consider: What of beloved family members who have died, but who were never privileged to be called into God’s truth? What of those who, though “good and decent people,” were never truly converted

As you learned earlier, we human beings live in an earthly “tabernacle,” our physical bodies. But we reside in our minds. Our memories are not stored in our kneecaps, or our elbows, but in our minds.

The billions of human beings who will be resurrected in the second resurrection—those who are the “rest of the dead” who do not come up until after the Millennium—are those who never had a real chance for salvation.

What constitutes a chance?

From many, many scriptures, it is obvious that only those who make a determined, conscious decision to reject God’s way of life, His wondrous love, His gracious forgiveness—those who rebel against His laws, and who willfully spurn His salvation will be destroyed in Gehenna fire.

Jesus showed that the Pharisees and the majority of the population of His time could not understand because God had not opened their minds and hearts!

Read it! “And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given…therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For this people’s heart is waxed gross; and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:10-16).

God has deliberately called some few from time to time, but He has not called the masses! The churches do not understand this. Millions assume some vast “tug o’ war” exists between Christ and Satan, Christ trying desperately to “save the world,” while Satan struggles desperately to keep it “lost.” This is a lie of the devil, and portrays the devil as equally strong, or stronger, than Christ.

Your Bible reveals that the vast majority are blinded; that they are deceived. But a deceived person does not know that he or she is deceived. A deceived person can be completely sincere. He or she can be honest, loyal, faithful, believing, loving, caring, and sharing! A deceived person can be the nicest person you ever met!

As my father was fond of saying, “What you don’t know, you don’t know that you don’t know!”

Now, consider the ramifications of these principles, in the next verse: “For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them” (Matthew 13:17).

Prophets and righteous men do not burn in Gehenna fire simply because God, in His infinite wisdom, chose not to reveal His plan of salvation unto them! Such men will come up in the great, general “White Throne Judgment” time.

Now, think!

When God resurrects the dead, it will be as though they had been dead for only a split second of time! So far as they were concerned, they were alive one moment: something happened, perhaps a wreck, or a fall, or a crash, or a bullet! They felt virtually nothing! Then, in a split second of time they are alive again!

Their memory is intact. Their character is intact. The kind of person they were is exactly the kind of person they still are!

So you see, your loved ones and mine, who really never consciously rejected God and His salvation will have a wonderful opportunity to repent, and to be saved, in the Great White Throne Judgment!

Don’t you believe that a person of good character will have a running head start towards receiving God’s truth above those who had poor character? Of course!

That is what I mean when I say, “You can take it with you when you die,” meaning your character!

In summary, then, we have seen there are THREE resurrections revealed in the Bible. The first is the dead in Christ. The second is the “rest of the dead” who “lived not again until the thousand years were finished,” the dead, in the vast majority, who come up for a one-hundred year period of judgment.

But this leaves one category of human beings not yet resurrected: the incorrigibly wicked! They are typified by the rich man of Luke 16, and called by the grisly phrase “death and the grave.” They come up at the end of this phase of God’s plan (2 Peter 3:12) when the earth itself is destroyed by fire.

Then, God says: “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).

What of those “new heavens and new earth”?

God says: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW!” (Revelation 21:4, 5).

Believe it or not, this is the true BEGINNING of the great plan of God.

Now, every being on earth is divine. Now, all are finally members of God’s great, expanded family!

What then?

Our known universe contains countless galaxies. Galaxies can contain hundreds of billions of stars! Each star, of which our own sun is but an orange dwarf as an example, could hold in its gravitational field any number of planets.

Why do you suppose God has created all those galaxies, all those suns, all those billions upon billions of planets?

Today, they are lifeless, empty, vain, waste, and chaotic.

So was our planet earth, until the One called Elohim said “Let there be light!”

Do you suppose He could ever do it again?

What about those who become “co-heirs with Christ”? Could they ever be called upon to go to a distant planet? Your God and mine is Creator. He has a great, fathomless purpose in all He does.

Perhaps, far from the “end” time, the time of the new heavens and the new earth are but “the beginning.”

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