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Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. (Hosea 6:3) |
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Then there is Brother George Warnock in Canada. He may still be living. He wrote an early booklet on the feast of Tabernacles which was an inspiration to me. |
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In 1948 many things happened. The State of Israel was recognized by the United Nations. Branham was operating a gift that remains one of the marvels of this century. A young evangelist from Dr. Mears "Fellowship of the Bleeding Heart" (or some such name) was holding a meeting in Los Angeles. The editors of the Hearst newspapers said, "Spotlight Graham" and Billy has been going strong ever since. |
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The latter rain came down from Canada in that year. It was a busy year as you can see. |
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Audrey and I were in Bible school at that time. The change in the spiritual atmosphere from 1947 to 1948 was noticeable. 1947 was typically Pentecostal in the Berean Bible School (Assembly of God) in San Diego. |
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Something changed in 1948. A quietness settled on the students. Instead of the usual messages in tongues and interpretation we began to prophesy almost unheard of. |
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At that time the popular preaching was, "We are in the great falling away." "The Catholic Church is Babylon the Great." And our old friend, "We are going to be raptured any minute now." So we were all falling away. We stayed clear of the Catholic Church. And we passed up some extraordinary real estate opportunities (I would be a rich man now had I bought a house then and sold it now) because of the imminence of the "rapture." |
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But when the prophecy came in 1948 there was no mention of the great falling away, the Catholic Church, or the rapture. (I have never once in my life heard a person with an accepted gift of prophecy proclaim by the Spirit the pre-tribulation rapture. I honestly think it is a concoction of the mind.) |
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Well anyway, the Spirit was telling us that the greatest days of all were upon us. There was much praising of the Lord. Two years later David DuPlessis began his work among the historic denominations. |
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The gifts of the Spirit have been on the increase since then because we are approaching the fullness of the latter rain, the unprecedented worldwide revival predicted by the Hebrew Prophets and also the Apostle James. There is a slowly- building crescendo (having begun, I believe, at the time of the Protestant Reformation) that will climax only when the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been preached to every nation for a witness. Only then will the end of the Church Age be here. After that the Christian witness will be driven from the major cities of the earth. |
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It is the writer's point of view that the great last-day witness is symbolized by the two witnesses of Revelation, Chapter Eleven. Do with this what you will, but the end-time, latter rain revival certainly isn't portrayed in any other chapter of Revelation! |
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So please no more running down William Branham or the latter rain revival. Audrey and I were there at the time, which I don't think was true of today's critics. |
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To be continued. |
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Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. (James 5:7) |
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We are examining Romans 8:19 referring to the manifestation of the sons of God. This expression is used by a few groups who have been driven off course because they are spiritually starved. They are more to be pitied than censured. |
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The greater problem is with the churches preaching grace, grace, grace, rapture, rapture, rapture. Such churches are driving many Evangelicals back into Judaism because of the emptiness of their teaching. Other Evangelicals, Christians who love the Lord, have a hunger for spiritual truth and experiences. They meet in small groups believing themselves to be, or that they are about to be, manifested sons of God. People want and need something more than they are being given by the local business (church) run by a CEO. |
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When the people are fed the Word of God instead of traditions and church growth techniques they will have a deeper relationship with Christ and not be deceived so easily. |
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The Spirit is speaking today, among other things, of the coming manifestation of the sons of God. Since the things of the Spirit are not bound by time or space, one could get the impression that the sons of God are going to be manifested any day now, meaning we no longer will be bound by the law of gravity and will be invulnerable as far as danger and disease are concerned. |
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However, Romans 8:19 is not speaking of the super Christians of today but of the coming of the Lord with His glorified saints. |
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For the earnest expectation of the creature [creation] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19) |
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The material creation, the physical world, is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. Do you remember that the preceding verse referred to the glory that is to be revealed in us? |
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We now have moved quite a ways in our discussion of the dilemma facing Paul what to do about the sinful body that was hindering his pursuit of righteousness. |
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The idea is that we have an inward nature that craves righteousness and an outward nature that craves sin and rebellion against God. Now we see that God not only is going to redeem our outward nature by the explosion of His Spirit outward in our personality but that this revelation of Divine Glory is awaited by the material creation. |
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It reminds one of the lamps in the pitchers of Gideon's army. When the pitchers were broken the light shone and completely routed the enemy. |
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It is marvelous to think about the material creation waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. We don't consider this fact often enough. |
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We don't think often enough of the saints appearing with the Lord Jesus. |
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When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4) |
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Why don't we stress more our appearing with Christ? Is it because we have so embraced the tradition of going to Heaven to live in a mansion that we can't perceive what the Scripture is saying? |
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Is it because we have stressed the pre-tribulation "rapture" so much the idea of our appearing with Christ is not in the consciousness of the saints? |
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Yet the famous "rapture" passage in First Thessalonians Four stresses that those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. |
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I think we are going in the wrong direction. Is the Lord going to make a U-turn? Are we going to be carried up to Heaven and then turn around and appear with the Lord? This is sensible? There is Scripture for this? |
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And who is going to appear with the Lord? The creation is awaiting the revealing of the sons of God, not the Lord Jesus only but the sons of God. Are these the careless believers of today who don't give a fig about the material creation just as long as they are sitting in air-conditioned comfort while the Jews without the Holy Spirit are trying to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom in the face of Antichrist? What a collection of myths! |
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It is time to get rid of this accumulation of rubbish and find out what Christ is saying to our generation. Unless I am hearing incorrectly He isn't saying anything about a "rapture" or mansions in Heaven. |
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The large conventions of intercessors of our day are hearing from the Lord. The message is "Repent! Repent! Repent!" If the churches do not repent of their worldliness, lust, and selfish ambitions our nation is lost and we Christians may be led away into torture and death. Men throw fruitless branches into the fire, the Lord told us. |
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The creation doesn't want to hear about how we are going to be raptured to Heaven to sit in some silly mansion. The nations (without realizing it) are anxiously waiting for people who can deliver them from the curse that God placed on the earth. |
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Do you want to help? |
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For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:20,21) |
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Remember, Paul is still talking about the problem with his flesh which he holds to be dead because of sin. |
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The creation (including Paul's body and everyone else's body) was subjected to frustration, to futility. Isn't this what Paul was complaining about? "I'm trying to do good but there is this dead animal I am dragging around!" |
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It was not the choice of the material creation to be subjected to thorns, thistles, painful childbirth, death. God put this curse on it. |
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Why did God curse the material creation? God so cursed it with the hope that one day He could deliver it from the chains of decay and corruption and bring it into the freedom of living that is part of the glory of the children of God. |
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If we could but see ourselves! We are a mess. We are bound by gravity, for one thing. Even the birds are better off in this respect. |
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Did you ever wish you could fly and not need tons of gasoline to get you off the ground? |
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Did you ever wonder what it would be like to swim through the ocean like a whale and greet the sunrise from the middle of the Pacific? |
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Did you ever imagine how wonderful it would be to explore the bottom of the Antarctic Ocean or the tops of the Himalayas without feeling the cold? |
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One time I was looking at a picture of an Icelandic hut, sitting all alone in the snow in Iceland. Inside the hut the family was listening to "Silent Night, Holy Night." What an enchanting sight. But so cold! |
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God never meant for His children in their glory to be subject to heat, cold, sickness, gravity, suffocation, weeds, painful childbirth, pain, death, or any of the other calamities of nature. These are not God's idea of a happy environment. The water was made to be walked upon. We have lost the natural faith of the children of God. |
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Why has God subjected man to such bondages and indignities? Because there is a higher purpose than our pleasure. The higher purpose is that we might learn to resist sin. |
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Here is one of the great issues facing mankind, particularly the people of our own spoiled generation. Will we accept the fact that the highest good in life is obedience to God and not our own happiness? This issue will increase in emphasis until finally proud human beings are shaking their fist at God and cursing Him because of their pain and frustration. But the righteous will bow their heads and follow the Lord patiently. |
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God deliberately has placed us in a painful, frustrating situation. Also we were born with an urge to sin and rebel against God. You must remember that while God tempts no person to sin He very easily could have prevented the original sin in the Garden of Eden. |
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To be continued. |
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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. (Revelation 21:4) |
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What is God hoping for? God is hoping that by filling us with Jesus Christ we will develop an immunity to sin so there will be no more rebellions in His creation. If you go through life without developing this immunity you can forget about being part of the royal priesthood; for the purpose of the royal priesthood is to govern the creation with the holy laws of God. |
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All who are willing to live under the rule of the royal priesthood will be set free from the curse placed on the creation. |
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Such freedom is not possible to man until the new Jerusalem, the royal priesthood of God, descends from Heaven bringing to the new earth the Glory of God. |
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What is Paul saying? Paul is stating that the answer to his cry, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death," is the Spirit of the Lord working under the authority of the blood of the cross. And Paul is not the only person to be delivered, the entire material creation, including all who are saved, will enjoy for eternity the world the way it is supposed to be. |
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We are not implying that all people will be saved. Some will choose to reject Jesus Christ and His brothers and by doing so will prevent their participation in the new world of righteousness that is at hand. But multitudes will choose to accept Jesus Christ and His saints and thus will be permitted to live in the freedom of the glory of the children of God. |
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Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea [mankind] shall be converted unto thee, the forces [wealth] of the Gentiles [nations] shall come unto thee. (Isaiah 60:5) |
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Don't try to make a paradise out of this world. It is cursed, accept that fact. Keep your integrity and God will teach you His ways. The knowledge of the Lord is the only treasure you will take from this cesspool of trials and tribulations. |
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If you will remain faithful to God the day will come when you will be set free from the bondage, frustration, futility, corruption, decay of the material creation. You will enter the new world as a ruler or a subject, depending on your calling. In any case you will be deliriously happy for eternity. |
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But if you choose to break out of God's prison and clutch to yourself the sordid corruptible treasures of the present age you will be judged by a frowning Christ. You will be assigned to the Kingdom or to outer darkness entirely at His discretion. |
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Don't be a fool. Get into the program that is going somewhere or else you will end up sitting in the sewage with a banana peel on top of your head. |
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Think about Calvary and you will understand that God means business! |
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For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:22,23) |
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When the jail services of our church were started we supposed they would be an evangelistic outreach. You know what? It turned out the inmates already had been evangelized and wanted something deeper so they could grow. So instead of only having "decisions for Christ" we are having many rededications accompanied by a great hunger for the knowledge of the Kingdom of God and righteous behavior. |
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The American people have been evangelized to a great extent but the believers are wandering in doctrinal confusion. They are not living righteous, holy lives. Today they are being called to repentance because they are living in gross immorality. The great need in America is for the Christians to be Christians. |
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And then there is the material creation waiting for us to grow up! |
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Paul says we Christians have "the firstfruits of the Spirit." This means that after we learn to live in and by the Spirit of God we will bring the Spirit of God to mankind so that eventually all who are saved may be delivered from the flesh-and-blood metabolism of animal life and begin to live by the Spirit of God. |
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The greatest revival of all time will take place when the springs of living water begin to flow from the mature saints. |
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And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. (Ezekiel 47:9) |
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The thirty-nine people who committed suicide recently (March, 1997) in Rancho Santa Fe were trying to get out of their bodies in order to enter a superior life. Maybe if we Christians had been more faithful in presenting the hope found in the Gospel of the Kingdom, instead of our shallow "make a decision for Christ," those people would have found the kingdom of peace and joy they were looking for in the Gospel. A tragedy might have been avoided! |
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The creation could not care less about you and me going to Heaven in a rapture. The nations are groaning for release from the futility of children of God locked in an animal existence. |
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Even we believers, although we already have the firstfruits of the Spirit, are groaning for release. We are not groaning for a "rapture" or to be carried to a mansion in Heaven. We are groaning as we wait for God to adopt our body so we may be brought into the fullness of the liberty of the children of God. |
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Our mind loves the law of God. Our body loves the law of sin. |
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What is God's solution through Jesus Christ? |
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First that we be released from condemnation through our death with Christ on the cross. |
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Second that we walk in newness of life, being so empowered by the Holy Spirit that we can put to death the passions of our flesh and soul and keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles. |
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Third that when the Lord returns God will make alive our mortal body by His Spirit that already is dwelling in us so we no longer will be dragging around an animal body chained by lust and rebellion against God. |
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Sound like anything you want? |
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For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. (Romans 8:24,25) |
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We are saved by hope. The true Christian life is one of patient hope. We Americans tend to make the Divine salvation something that improves our present life in some manner. But the actual salvation of the Scriptures is a hope for a better resurrection. |
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What was Paul hoping for, and what should be our hope? |
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As we have said, Paul wanted to be free from his body. |
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Why did Paul want to be free from his body? |
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Because Paul was a righteous man who deplored the sins that his body urged on him. Paul wanted to be free to live righteously. |
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Have you ever once in your entire life heard a Christian groan for the making alive of his body so he could live a righteous life? |
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Perhaps not. |
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The fact that groaning for the redemption of our body in order to behave righteously is seldom heard reveals clearly that we do not understand the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. |
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The believers of today are anxiously awaiting the coming of Jesus so they may be "raptured" into Heaven and thus escape trouble and pain. |
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Paul groaned for the redemption of his body in order that he might behave righteously. |
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What a difference! |
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Paul saw the Christian salvation as a means of acquiring that which he found impossible under the Law of Moses. Paul wanted to be righteous! Paul wanted to be righteous in order to please God and have fellowship with Him. |
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When we Evangelicals present the Gospel we do so as a ticket that will admit us to Paradise when we die, with righteous behavior being a kind of side issue. |
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Something is fishy in Denmark, as we say. |
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There is no indication of any kind whatever in the writing of Paul that he viewed the redemption of his body as a means of getting to Paradise to live forever. Paul spoke often of the Day of the Lord and of the Kingdom of God, but never of living forever in Heaven. |
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Paul expressed his desire to be with the Lord, not just to leave the material realm and enter the spiritual realm. And certainly never about the idea of living forever in a mansion! How ridiculous, when we will have bodies like that of the Lord Jesus. Jesus doesn't live in a mansion and neither will we, unless we are speaking of the body of glory that will descend on us from Heaven. |
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Here is a remarkable thing. The most common understanding of Christianity is not found in the Epistles. |
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What did Paul hope to do with a redeemed body? It appears he hoped to be with Christ and to serve Christ in righteous, holy behavior. There is no indication that Paul saw himself standing before God for a thousand years, as one commentator has it, and praising God for His grace, meaning that God received Paul into Paradise even though he still was a sinner. |
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Paul was out for righteousness and the Kingdom of God. |
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In the Book of Philippians we read of Paul's goal. Paul's goal was to attain the resurrection (literally "out-resurrection") from the dead. This hope was expressed toward the end of Paul's life so it certainly is not a cry to be saved from wrath. |
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What was Paul pressing toward? He was pressing toward the first resurrection in which his sinful body will be replaced with a house of life. Why a house of life? So Paul can be with Jesus in all the relationships, tasks, opportunities, and marvels of the endless ages to come. |
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But won't every believer receive such a body and such opportunities? |
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If so, then what does Paul mean in Philippians when he says he is trying to win Christ and the out-resurrection? |
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To be continued. |
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For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. (II Corinthians 4:2) |
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In Second Corinthians Paul looks with longing toward his "house from Heaven." Notice that it is not his house in Heaven but his house from Heaven. Perhaps our theology is in need of major overhaul. |
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I was taught by Navigators when first saved that we must adhere strictly and closely to the Bible. This I have endeavored to do. But in so doing I have found that our Evangelical doctrine, with its sure foundation of the atoning blood and triumphant resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, has constructed a superstructure of errors. |
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The common denominator of the superstructure of errors is the notion that Divine grace is an alternative to righteous behavior, a ticket to eternal residence in a mansion in Heaven. |
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The Scriptures to not describe any such salvation. The Scriptures speak of redemption, that is, the restoring to man that which was lost in the garden. |
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What was lost in the garden was not eternal residence in the spirit Paradise, it was fellowship with God and access to the tree of life. |
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Our salvation ought to be one that restores fellowship with God and access to the tree of life. |
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Our fellowship with God is restored through the blood of Jesus Christ. Our fellowship is then maintained as we, through the grace Christ gives, turn away from our sins. |
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As we turn away from our sins (as we overcome) we are given to eat of the tree of life. The Tree of Life is Jesus Christ. It is His body and blood that are our true and eternal food. |
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If we learn to live by His body and blood He will raise us in the last day and clothe us with eternal life. |
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Then we will return with Him in His Kingdom and govern the nations of the earth. |
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This is the true Gospel of the Kingdom of God and eternal life. |
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God is in the process of restoring the original gifts and ministries of the Spirit to the churches. Along with this He is sending the Spirit of repentance, and also wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. |
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The purpose of all this wonderful grace is that there might come forth a Church without spot or wrinkle; not without spot or wrinkle by imputation but by actual transformation of personality. For the royal priesthood is not righteous, holy, and obedient to God by imputation but by transformation. |
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Are you a son of God by imputation or by transformation? Do you have actual righteousness, peace, and joy by imputation or by transformation? |
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We need to think hard and long about the difference between imputation and transformation. We are approaching the age of moral horrors. The tares are coming to maturity as we can read in the newspapers. |
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Are you going to be an oak of righteousness, a rock that people can trust in when Satan and his angels are let loose in the world? Are you going to be of the remnant to which people can come and find deliverance in the hour when it no longer is possible even to pray in the large cities? |
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Or are you going to be one of those terrified believers who rush about screaming in the hour of terror, who never thought God would allow you to be exposed to such desolation? |
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If you will run for protection to the great wings of God and stay there you will be protected when a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand and you will be ready to assist others. |
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But if you continue with your careless life, believing you are holding your ticket to Paradise and are just about to be "raptured," you are facing a bleak future. |
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Take it from a friend. |
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