Class 2 – Visions of the Kingdom Age – James Dillingham for Cranston Rhode Island Snr SS

Class 2 – Visions of the Kingdom Age – James Dillingham for Cranston Rhode Island Snr SS

 

 

Our continuing Subject is Visions of the Kingdom Age. This is the 2nd class in this series presented as the Adult SS class for the Cranston RI Ecclesia in March of 2014

 Class 2 – Visions of the Kingdom Age – James Dillingham for Cranston Rhode Island Snr SS

In the previous class we considered the warning Jesus presented concerning judgment that even some brothers and sisters who had possesed miraculous powers of the Holy Spirit will be shocked at being rejected by him. We noted his statement upon their objection that he did not know them. We parallelled that odd statement to the same terms of rejection to the 5 unwise wedding attendants in the first of the 3 judgment parables in Matthew 25… that he told those rejected wedding attendants he didn’t know them. Then we noted the basis by which Jesus will be able to say he doesn’t know baptized Christadelphians… because they didn’t truly love him or his Father. 1 Cor 8:3 where we read… If a man love God, the same is known of Him.

 

Truly loving God is the key to being known of Him and at least being officially recognized by Christ when we will be judged. Our original point in this line of reasoning was that there will even be brothers and sisters who could perform miracles and prophesy the future that will be rejected by Jesus Christ at the judgment… because their professed love of God was not genuine.  Our generation has been given a far greater gift than even those Holy Spirit powers that these Ecclesial members assumed was proof of their assured salvation. Some of them died never realizing… that they weren’t as ready for Christ’s judgment as they thought they were.

 

This issue of much being required from whom much is given is just one avenue that addresses why our specific generation of the enlightened is not ready for the events that we will be required to experience. Individually, we have the opportunity to change that… but as a community, that prophetic status is assured.

 

In fact, there is a particular warning Jesus encourages us to note that also exposes our specific generation to a greater judgment application than any previous generation in the last – almost 6,000 years. We read in Matt 12:36-37

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

 

There has never ever been a generation so socially expressive as our generation. We have so many avenues for expression it is ridiculous… land line phones, cell phones, texting, emails, postal mail, blogging, social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Skyping, Podcasts, teleconferencing, video conferencing and web conferencing…and oh yes… the same form of expression everyone else has always had for millenniums… personal face to face conversations. No generation has ever had the opportunity for generating idle words as we have in this last generation of the Ecclesial Age. Jesus warns us to be very very careful of what we say… because our words can both condemn us or justify us. Once again… our generation faces a greater responsibility and exposure to divine scrutiny than past generations of the enlightened community.

 

Yet another confirming line of reasoning is how Paul, Peter and Jude each directly address the Ecclesial problems in what is defined as the “last days”. It seems amazing how our worldwide community can be so overjoyed that we are the generation of the last days in reference to the return of Christ and yet still have the capacity to mentally deflect the uncomplimentary prophecies of the enlightened community that is associated with those same last days. At this time we’ll leave the bulk of that consideration for a personal examination. It is easy to follow up… just read 2 Peter 2, the book of Jude and 2 Timothy 3. But let’s just look at yet another scriptural identification of our last days community, presented by our judge Jesus Christ in Revelation chapter 3. This is the letter to the Laodicean Ecclesia. Revelation is declared by Christ to be a book concerning things which shall come to pass. Verse 1 establishes that precedent: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. That doesn’t mean there were not current applications when John wrote this book, but that the focus was future. Therefore these letters to the 7 Ecclesias don’t exclusively offer that current application for those specific Ecclesias but also a necessarily future context to them as well. At the conclusion of the  Laodicean letter we immediately see John’s vision of the Millennial Kingdom beginning in chapter 4 just as our generation of the enlightened community immediately precedes the introduction of the real Millennial Kingdom that John’s vision addresses. The letter to the Laodicean Ecclesia is a letter to the final phase of the Ecclesial Age.

Here is what Jesus says about our global community: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would thou were cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eyesalve, that thou may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcomes 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.

 

Jesus tells us that as a community… not 100% of us, not individually… but as a global Ecclesia… we are not ready for his return and his judgment. The Laodiceans were identified as a community that did not have an accurate assessment of themselves. They are preented as overconfident, far too self- assured about the status of their divine acceptability.

 

We’ll look at one more example that is also highly specific but not quite so obvious, as this is a pattern based relationship. We’ll focus on three related generations of the enlightened community, of which we are the last. A divinely appointed ‘Age’ is identified by three issues: 1) There is a change in divine laws; 2) There is a change in the divinely appointed priesthood structure and 3) There is an incredible unveiled outpouring of divine power that validates these changes. The first stage in the four stage divine educational plan was the Patriarchal Age when the patriarchs operated as the priests of the community… building altars, offering sacrifices, directing worship and judging their community. That Patriarchal Age began outside Eden with Adam and ended at Mt Sinai. At Sinai, through Moses, God appointed new laws, a new priesthood and validated those changes with incredible demonstrations of power. That 2nd stage was the First Kingdom Age, which ended at Jerusalem with the introduction of the Ecclesial Age following the death and resurrection of the Messiah. Once again, in this 3rd stage of the divine plan laws were changed and the priesthood was changed. The miraculous power demonstrations were escalated, with one man being immortalized, with Holy Spirit power being shared for 2 generations for demonstrating that miraculous power as a validation of the changes divinely required in that transition from one divinely appointed age to the next. The 4th Age will be the Millennial Kingdom, the Restored Kingdom Age. One constant feature at each point concerning this changing priesthood structure is that it is always the sons of High Priest or a priest that qualify as priests. This was true for the Patriarchal Age as the sons of the partriarchs continued the priestly work of their fathers, like Shem from Noah and Jacob from Issac from Abraham… building altars, offering sacrifices & leading their communities in worship and judgments. This priesthood qualification was true for the First Kingdom Age but highly restrictive to just the sons of the High Priest and it is true for the Ecclesial Age, as we are defined as a royal priesthood on the basis of being the children of Jesus Christ on the basis of being reborn through the covenant ritual of baptism. The Ecclesial Age will end at Jerusalem with the restoration of the Kingdom. The laws will change again. There will be a new priesthood structure with both immortal and mortal priests. These changes will be validated by the greatest of all public demonstrations of divine power, with many people being immortalized and having miraculous powers and with global earthquakes and devastations that create a dramatic attitude shift, a paradigm shift that has never been equalled before in the history of creation.

 

Now there was always a particular generation that served as the transition generation bridging both the end of a previous divine age and the introduction of the subsequent divine age. These are the three transition generations of the enlightened community… Israel at Sinai, Israel after the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ… and us, our generation… as we will witness the end of the Ecclesial Age and the beginning of the restored Kingdom Age… the Millennial Kingdom , the Sabbath Kingdom. Once again our generation of the enlightened is specifically identified by this shadow pattern. However this is not a very complimentary pattern. The First transition generation at Sinai was not ready to inherit the promised land, despite their confident belief that they were ready.  All but two of the more than 600,00 Brethren were condemned to die in the wilderness. The second transition generation of the enlightened community following the death and resurrection of Jesus was also not prepared for the changes they faced. Despite being forewarned about the timing of the appearance of the Messiah. Daniel’s prophecy had identified the generational appearance of the Jewish savior. John the Baptist had warned them… but they weren’t ready for Jesus of Nazareth, for a savior that would have to die and be resurrected to immortality and leave them. The Roman army destroyed the nation, destroyed the temple, murdered over a million of the enlightened community and sold hundreds of thousands of them into slavery. We are the third in this pattern. Just like the last transition generation we too have been told about when the Messiah will be coming. The generation has been identified by the resurrection of the national first born son of God, the political restoration of Israel.  If the pattern of the Age transitioning generations of the enlightened community maintains …. then despite the fact we know he is coming soon… as a community, we really aren’t ready.  The fourth transitional generation of the enlightened community will be at the end of the Millennial Kingdom. We are specifically told there will be a rebellion. Now it should be recognized that rebellion could not come from any unenlightened community. How could there actually be anyone on this planet that could be unenlightened after 1,000 years of Christ’s reign on earth with the immortal saints educating, policing and ruling with him? Unless we want to presume the work of Jesus & the saints would be sloppy and incomplete we have to understand the rebellion at the conclusion of the Millennial Kingdom will be the work of the enlightened community, what we call Christadelpnians in our generation. Our generation of the enlightened community is part of a fraternity of four generations, all demonstrating a distinct historic and prophetical pattern of divine unacceptability.

 

These are only some of the reasons, some of the available evidence that as an Ecclesial generation… we really aren’t as ready for Christ to return as we think we are and we are not ready for his surprising judgments. As a community we have a far too comfortable Laodicean self-image that is completely illegitimate, as Jesus himself highlights.  Individually, we have the opportunity not to participate in that generational shortcoming, by not listening to the many in our community who tell us salvation is assured for Christadelphians, that Jesus automatically forgives everything, that we can be as unmotivated as we prefer and there will be no consequences, that everything is all about how we interact with each other, that the constant references to the fear of God are only reverential fear as we have nothing to be afraid of whatsoever. That concentration on only half of the story creates a distinct imbalance that is highly disrespectful to the Creator of the universe and His son, while it over-exaggerates our own significance in our own eyes.

The Two Resurrections

Let’s move on to the subject of resurrection … which is followed by judgment, which is followed by yet another and very separate resurrection… or perishing forever. This expression of two resurrections has been and continues to be one of the great challenges within the Christadelphian community over the last 125 years. This is a highly significant issue but very often misunderstood. If we think of resurrection… the only hope for mankind … as a single application… as in the resurrection as opposed to a resurrection, we will not only create a stumbling block in the path of our hopefully progressive spiritual knowledge and growth… we will possibly be contradicting the righteousness of our Creator with our subsequent understandings based on that misconception.. the misconception that there is only one resurrection category presented in scripture.

 

There is a resurrection to mortality prior to judgment and a separate resurrection to immortality following judgment. These resurrections are expressed both separately and independently in scripture, as well as combined.  Many, but not all who are judged will participate in this 1st and very separate resurrection category, as we are specifically told that Jesus will judge both the living and the dead, and we which remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede the dead, but will join them in the immortalization process of joining Christ in the cloud and the air.  This first resurrection category of a resurection simply to mortality – prior to judgment – is defined by Paul as the resurrection of the just and the unjust.

Act 24:15 And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

 

Both the just as well as the unjust will participate in the resurrection to judgment. However, the unjust will not participate in the 2nd resurrection category… the resurrection to immortality.

 

Jesus also identifies this first resurrection as the qualifying stage for two possibilities… defining it as both the resurrection of damnation and the resurrection of life.

John 5: 27-29 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 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.

Obviously the resurrection to immortality could never be expressed as a resurrection to damnation, but the resurrection preceding judgment certainly qualifies… exclusively for that identification.  

 

Another example of a resurrection reference that exclusively identifies the resurrection to mortality prior to judgment would be

Heb 11:35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

This raising from the dead back to life that some have already experienced is defined as a ‘lesser’ resurrection than the one they might attain in the future… which qualifies as a “better” resurrection as well as only a potential resurrection. This clearly identifies that a raising to simple mortality (even without participating in Christ’s judgment) qualifies as a resurrection. That lesser resurrection is defined here as the women who received their dead raised to life again…. women like the widow of Zarephath becuase Elijah raised her son from the dead, the Shunamite woman whose son Elisha revived, the widow Nain whose son Jesus revived, as well as Jairus’ wife’. The hope for a better resurrection validates two separate resurrection applications on the basis of differing levels of value… since one is better than the other.  How can one have a “better” resurrection, if there is only one application? If resurrection is only from mortality to immortality, then Jesus is the only one who has been resurrected, and how could we possibly have a better resurrection than his? The ‘better’ resurrection qualification is mortality to immortality as opposed to the resurrection from the grave to mortality identified in this verse as women receiving their dead to life again.

 

The resurrection to immortality is also expressed in exclusive terms that distances it from the very separate resurrection to mortality due to a judgment accountability. Jesus refers to this as the resurrection of the just where the faithful are recompensed for their sacrificial love and devotion.

Luke 14:12-14 Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou make a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. 13 But when thou make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: 14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

There is no recompense at the resurrection to mortality…. only the resurrection to immortality… which is limited to only “the just”. The unjust will not participate in the resurrection to immortality, despite participating in the resurrection to mortality prior to judgment. The unjust will participate in the resurrection to damnation that Jesus referenced in John 5. The context here in Luke 14 for the just strictly limits this resurrection application to the 2nd understanding of a rising from death defiled mortality to immortality.

 

This is the resurrection for which Christ was the firstfruits… as he certainly wasn’t the first person to just rise from the dead, but he was the first to rise to immortality.

Acts 26:23  That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.

Jesus was certainly not the ‘first’ to come back from the dead to a condition of mortality. He personally raised a little girl, a widow’s son and a grown man from the dead. He was only the first in the exclusive context of a resurrection to immortality. This is also how he qualified as being the “firstfruits” from the grave. This is an exclusive application to the 2nd resurrection application of immortalization.

 

1 Cor 15: 20-23 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

This resurrection that came by man is presented as Christ rising from the dead and becoming the firstfruits of them that slept. This identifies the resurrection to immortality from the death condemned state of mortality. As we noted, Jesus certainly was not the first to rise from the grave to mortal life again, as he personally brought 3 people back from the dead to life again… 3 people that would die again… the son of the widow of Nain, the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus. Those were simply resurrections to mortality. Jesus was the first to rise all the way to immortality from the sleep of death. It should also be understood that one doesn’t actually have to be technically dead to be called dead in scripture… as in where Jesus advises the would-be disciple in Matthew 8: let the dead bury their dead… or as Paul told the Gentile believers in Ephesus: You has he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. This is a type of metonymous expression where the assurance of perishing (dying forever due to an absence of any avenue for salvation) is extended to include the living who have no way to escape that forever death and can therefore legitimately be called ‘dead’ despite being technically alive. It is Jesus Christ that has converted our assured death to a potential escape from that death. Therefore sometimes when scripture refers to dead and death, sometimes it simply refers to mortality. An example of this would be

1 Cor 15: 52-54 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. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 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.

 

We should understand there is a significant danger of getting this wrong… presuming that the term resurrection either refers exclusively to immortalization or to the full range of rising from the dead all the way to immortality. Both of those limited and minimalized understandings offer a platform for progressive and eventually rather divinely insulting extended conclusions… conclusions we certainly want to avoid.

 

Let’s consider a demonstration of the danger of getting this full application of the term resurrection wrong: The significant doctrinal difference between our Ammended Christadelphian community and the Unammended Christadelphian community is the issue of resurrectional accountability… who will be raised from the dead to a state of mortality for the purpose of judgment. The first mistake that is made in this disagreement is to define participation in the resurrection to judgment on the basis of “responsibility”… as if anyone not participating in the judgment is therefore not responsible to our Creator’s judgments. There isn’t a single human being that ever lived that bears no responsibility to the Creator without suffering any divine judgment… not a single person. We all die. We won’t all be raised from the dead to judgment, but we do all die. That is a divine judgment. Mortality and death were not simply components of an original creative order. Death was a divine judgment. This false understanding of human beings somehow not being responsible to our Creator until enlightenment is based on the incorrect presumption that death itself is not a divine judgment. The Unammended, and sadly quite a number in our Ammended community today, actually believe that man was originally created in a mortal state… that death was already part of the creation process and therefore not a divine judgment imposed on an undying mankind due to the introduction of sin. Yahweh’s righteousness completely denies that presumption. God’s judgment of death was the result of the introduction of sin. Every human being who suffers the divine judgment of death has been divinely judged. If they are not accountable to Christ’s judgment then they perish forvever at their first death, just like those who are accountable to Christ’s judgment but will be ultimately rejected, suffering that same eternal death. Just like resurrection, there are two categories of death… temporary death and permanent death. Temporary death is reserved for those who are accountable to divine judgment. Permanant death is the judgment for those who are not accountable to that judgment and those who are rejected at that judgment. This is why we read about the 2nd death in Revelation:

chap 2 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

chap 20 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

There are 2 death categories & 2 resurrection categories.

Anyone offering any respect whatsoever to that scientific lobatomization called evolution would have to presume mankind started out as subject to death. This presumption that we were originally created in an already mortal, dying state is one of the illegitimate presumptions for the understandings of the original unammended community, as not all of that division of the enlightened community maintain the original understandings that initiated this division. This inappropriate presumption of death preceding sin was part of the original reasoning to make false conclusions about who will be raised for judgment. It was  and still is presumed by some that the divine death sentence threat to Adam and Eve was simply an immediate execution, which was avoided by the use of the animal skin coverings that acted as an atonement- a covering for their sin. That is not only an impossible understanding, it is highly disrespectful to our Creator on several levels.

 

1. Paul tells us repeatedly that death came by sin. One example would be Rom 5:12… Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men. We are told the sting of death is sin, which would be a lie if death was actually part of God’s original ‘very good’ creative order. Then the sting of death would be God and not sin. We are told death is the wages of sin in Rom 6:23  that we read twice each year and at every baptism.  This statement would be a lie if we believe death was part of God’s original creative order and had nothing to do with sin. Getting this issue wrong about the relationship between death and sin is quite insulting to our Creator. Death is the divine and therefore the righteous ‘answer’ to the problem of sin. This why the death of our Messiah is so significant and why it is the death of Jesus that affords our reconciliation to God, as Paul states in Romans 5:10. The memorial service is all about remembering the ‘death’ of our Savior. Death is the divinely righteous answer for sin. This is why our sins are fogiven at baptism, when we validate the righteousness of God’s judement of death for sin by ritually joining our Messiah in his death. Our sins are forgiven at that point because death is the divine answer for sin. We rise from that baptismal grave to validate God’s righteousness in offering a renewal to life on the basis of grace, despite the right-ness of the judgment of death due to sin.

2. The basic problem with this reasoning of mortality and death already being part of the creational order before sin introduced its corrupting consequences is that our Creator declared everything to be “very good” at the conclusion of that 6 day evening and morning creative process. Emphasizing that expression was the mere ‘good’ declaration of the preceding days of creation. Death could never be idenitied within the framework of what our Creator declares to be very good.    Gen 1:12,18,21,25… 31: very good                                                                                Emphasizing this impossibility of death being part of what the Creator defines as very good would be the observation that …Under the laws of the Kingdom of God anyone merely touching a dead body had to leave their family and Ecclesial community for 7 days, participating in 2 separate sin offerings… or if they refused to go through that inconvenient process … they had to be ostracized forever by divine mandate. Obviously death could not possibly have been part of what our Creator declared to be very good. That presumption would be quite insulting to what our Creator defines as very good. Further emphasizing this understanding is how we see Jesus refusing the lesser identification of merely qualifying as ‘good’. Jesus rebuked the rich young ruler who addressed him as good by responding to him that there was none good except God. Jesus Christ is certainly the best component in all creation since sin corrupted creation. If he didn’t even qualify for the lesser title of simply ‘good’ then how could creation as we know it now have been what qualified for God’s assessment as being “very good”? The terms of creation had to change dramatically, dropping precipitously from that previous state of ‘very good’ to cursed due to sin.

3. Let’s look at yet another divinely disrespectful aspect to this increasingly popular mistake in our community that mortality and death actually preceded sin in the order of events… as this has everything to do with the terms of resurrection and the doctrinal separations between the Ammended and original Unammended enlightened communities. If Adam & Eve were already in a mortal dying nature when God threatened them with death… then God is either a liar or a potential failure. God could not possibly have actually immediately executed Adam and Eve if they touched or ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge. If He did that, He would have failed. Man was the focal point of the entire creation project, into whom He had deposited His image and likeness. Our Creator cannot fail. We are the ones who fail… not Him. To suggest that God threatened what He never would have done accuses Him of being a liar… which is quite unwise.

 

It is the presumption that the animal skin coverings somehow prevented or excused  God’s judgement of death for sin that is the springboard for that original unammended community in the late 19th century to presume that there was a legal condemnation applied in Eden that needs to be covered or atoned for in order to ever participate in the resurrection to judgment at all…. therefore this highly inappropriate understanding developed well over 100 years ago that one has to be baptized in order to be raised for judgment. That presumption of a legal condemnation affecting one’s required participation in the resurrection to  judgment is yet another distortion of our Creator’s righteousness. That dual nature and scope of divine condemnation is another very consuming subject, but we need to try to stay as focused on the theme of resurrection as possible.

 

Therefore, as we noted… incorrect understandings about resurrection can be quite insulting to our Creator… which is never a safe position. Errors breed. Errors, mistakes, lead to more errors & mistakes. That’s just the nature of sin. The only way to stop sin permanently is to kill it, as in death. The only way to stop sin temporarily is to painfully cut it away… as in circumcision of the heart.

 

It is this presumption that there is only one category of resurrection that creates a false reasoning platform for breeding more misunderstandings about our Creator’s motivations for the very separate resurrection to mortality for judgment. Some within the Unammended division of the enlightened community still presume assume incorrectly that the conditions for participation in the resurrection to immortality can be superimposed onto the conditions for participation in the resurrection to judgment. Let me offer an example:

 

About 120 years ago-or so – a brother in the North London Ecclesia in Great Britain referenced Hebrews 13:20-21 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep,through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will.

A sister who was promoting the idea that exclusively those who are baptized will attend the resurrection responded to his reference with this question: Since the basis for the resurrection of our Messiah was based on the blood of the everlasting covenant then why do you suggest our own resurrection is not based on that same blood of the everlasting covenant?

 

Now, can you see why that question is completely invalid? Can you see the false presumption that is being made to even ask that question?

 

The reference to the bringing again from the death our Lord Jesus Christ through the blood of the everlasting covenant refers to his immortalization-the 2nd resurrection category… not his raising to mortality before his resurrection to immortality. This sister’s question presumes the precedents for the resurrection to Christ’s immortality are supposed to apply to our very separate resurrection to mortality for the purpose of judgment. That is an absolutely impossible application, based on presuming the qualifications for participating in the resurrection to immortality are exactly the same as the qualifications for participation in the resurrection to judgment. It is a completely illegitimate question. It is based on this mistaken impression that there is only one resurrection category presented in scripture. The record of this event -recorded in a very old Christadelphian magazine -explains that this sister asking this question was the wife of Bro JJ Andrews, who was at the center of this challenge to divine truths. It should be understood that not everyone in the unammended fellowship maintains this misunderstanding… just as not everyone in the ammended community actually accepts the understanding that death was God’s righteous judgment for sin.

 

One of the issues we always need to remember about incorrect doctrines is that they will always -100% of the time –  be degrading to our Creator. This mistake about presuming only those in a covenant binding relationship with God through sacrifice can possibly be raised for judgment is no exception to this rule. If we maintain that God restricts Christ to only raise from the dead those who voluntarily entered into a covenant relationship with him through baptism, or circumcision or blood sacrifice… then we are contradicting our Creator’s right of vindication. That divine ‘right of vindication is the foundational ‘why’ answer concerning the terms of resurrectional accountability. Our Creator’s right of vindication is the ‘why’ answer to the qualification for acountability to His son’s judgment. This is why we will have to give account for every idle word we have spoken. We will be asked at the judgment… what were you thinking when you said that? This is why the enlightened rejector cannot escape accountability to a very personal divine judgment, just because they refused to obediently participate in a covenant binding sacrifice. This is why the presence of those who pierced the body of our Messiah will be demanded at Christ’s judgment… why the entire Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus will be forced to understand the incredible God-despising and insulting foolishness of their arrogance. Divine vindication is the foundational motivation for the qualifications for the resurrection to mortality preceding judgment. It is also the motivation for the extreme violence when Christ and the immortalized saints bind and chain the dragon, the serpent, satan and the devil at the beginning of their Millennial Kingdom reign. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, wind storms, plague and wars will eventually humble mankind into the capacity for enlightenment. The reason Yahweh always gives for the incredible degree of this violence… is That they might know Him…. that is divine vindication. The very key to salvation is defined by Jesus in exactly those terms in his prayer before entering Gethsemane to be arrested: John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Our Creator will not suffer the blissful self-worshipping ignorance of his creation interminably. He will require a reckoning and a vindication of His right-ness.

End of Class 2