Can that be possible?
Doesn't traditional Christianity teach that all who do not accept Christ are lost — go to hell when they die?
Let's get this straight.
WHAT ABOUT the billions on earth who have not accepted Jesus Christ as personal Savior? Are they not LOST — condemned to hell unless before they die they do "accept Christ"?
That's the teaching of traditional Christianity! Many have preached: "There's NO MIDDLE GROUND! This very moment you're either 'saved' or 'lost'!"
A world famous evangelist has preached to vast crowds up to a hundred thousand at a time. In some of these crusades, televised, he has said that before he finished his sermon someone somewhere on earth would die. By tomorrow morning, he said, many will die. You, any one of you, might be one of them. Accidents do happen unexpectedly. Unless you come on up to the altar tonight, and accept Christ as your personal Savior, you might be roasting in hell tomorrow morning!
How many of our own people have taken that Protestant teaching for granted — just because you have heard it so many times since childhood? How about YOU?
Let's understand this clearly!
What did Jesus mean, when He told the Pharisees it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the judgment than for them? The evil people of Sodom were then long since dead. The Pharisees — who died some 1,900 years ago — are to be in that judgment!
Jesus was speaking of a future judgment on the Pharisees and the Sodomites. They all died. Have they been roasting and burning in hell? The Sodomites were long since dead when Jesus spoke. They were not yet judged. Were they sent to roast in hell before being judged?
On the other hand, Jesus said, plainly, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (John 6:44).
God tells us who are in His Church, through Peter, "For the time is come" (had come then, when Peter wrote) "that judgment must begin at the house of God" — that is, the Church "and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" (I Pet. 4:17).
There was no judgment on Sodom — YET! There was no judgment on the Pharisees — YET! But there was judgment then on the Church — for judgment had begun on the Church!
You and I, called by God to be in His Church, are being judged now! But those not being called now are not yet being judged!
Actually we who have been called now were predestined to be called now! But that is another subject.
What does all this mean, then?
God has called some of us — just an infinitesimal FEW of all the people on earth — to be trained in the Christian life to be KINGS and/or PRIESTS ruling under Jesus Christ when He comes as King of kings to RULE ALL NATIONS, in the Kingdom (the divine Family) of God.
To train us for that position — to QUALIFY us to be given power to RULE under Christ (see Revelation 2:26-27, 3:21) — God has given each of US a PART in the WORK of His Church! In the Church He has set apostles, evangelists, pastors, elders, deacons, deaconesses and lay members. Not many are evangelists. There is now but one apostle. All do not have the same office or place of service. Most are to stand back of those Christ sends forth proclaiming His message. To stand back of your local pastor. To help with PRAYERS first of all, with God's tithes and your offerings and in whatever way is assigned. But what of those NOT YET CALLED?
They are also NOT YET JUDGED!
What, then? Are others free to commit sin, commit crimes and not be punished? BY NO MEANS. Others will be judged for what they are doing NOW! They are being held accountable.
They are like the bank robber who robbed a bank several months ago. But he was not judged the same day he committed the crime. The police had to catch him, arrest him and a date is set when he will be judged for what he did several months ago. He is not judged until he is brought to trial in a courtroom before a judge — and probably a jury.
We, called now, are given our chance to RECEIVE by grace God's GIFT of eternal life. And Christ, Head of the Church, is the living JUDGE! We who receive God's grace are to be rewarded according to our WORKS! Christ our High Priest is ALIVE in heaven, JUDGING YOU AND ME RIGHT NOW, as to whether we still have and are led by God's Spirit, and the degree and character of our works. God has given some higher positions than others, but to whom much is given much shall be required. We shall be judged accordingly! And God's judgment is righteous and equitable!
Let me make this CLEAR — UNDERSTANDABLE!
Are you, then, saved now? NO! "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be [when Christ returns to earth in power and glory] saved" (Matt. 24:13). Jesus Himself said that!
When Jesus comes in POWER and GLORY TO RULE ALL NATIONS, then will salvation come to you and we who are in God's Church — IF Christ has so judged! And we are now BEING judged DAY BY DAY! Jesus Christ is now ALIVE. The living Christ is now HIGH PRIEST over the Church. All judgment has been assigned by the Father to HIM (John 5:22).
As Christ's Second Coming approaches, we read, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God" (Rev. 12:10). We in the Church "are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Pet. 1:5).
The world blinded!
The whole world is blinded to this great TRUTH — the TRUTH OF SALVATION — of how one obtains it — of what it is (going to heaven or to hell — or remaining on earth). Is salvation going to a PLACE? — or being changed from mortal to immortal?
If I should tell a "Christian" who has accepted Christ (in the spirit of "GET") that when one is "saved," he is changed from a human person into a GOD BEING, would he not call that blasphemy? How did the whole world become so BLINDED — SO mixed up — in such religious CONFUSION? God says, "The god of this world [SATAN] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ . . . should shine unto them"
(II Cor. 4:4). Satan has deceived the WHOLE WORLD (Rev. 12:9).
That's why in religions, religious leaders, deceived by Satan, blinded to GOD'S TRUTH, have started this world's religions — Buddhism, Con-fucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, Hinduism, Moslemism, Christianity and Judaism. The latter is NOT the religion ancient Israel received from Moses but a perversion introduced by rabbis after the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. There are some 250 sects and denominations of Christianity. They use the NAME of Christ but are FAR, FAR from the teachings of Jesus and His apostles!
Yet the TRUTH IS all PLAINLY preserved for US IN THE BIBLE — but religious leaders have insisted on "interpreting it" — putting their twisted meaning on it!
The PURPOSE for humanity
Winston Churchill said, before the U.S. Congress, "There is a PURPOSE being worked out here below." A higher Power above is working out that PURPOSE.
Behind all creation there had to be the preexistence of an almighty Creator — of supreme MIND. A Creator who RULES over His creation. That Creator placed angels on this earth prior to man. To govern them, with the government of God, He placed a super archangel, the cherub Lucifer, on earth's throne. But Lucifer rebelled. He led his angels (a third of all angels) into rebellion. The government of God was no longer administered on earth. Lucifer became Satan the devil. His angels became demons — all with superior but perverted minds.
God's PURPOSE was to reproduce Himself through mortal MAN, made from the dust of the earth — to instill within MAN, by man's own decision and desire, the holy, righteous, perfect spiritual CHARACTER Of God — converting mortal man into immortal GOD BEINGS! God purposed through men to RESTORE HIS GOVERNMENT on earth. For this dual SUPREME PURPOSE — restoring His GOVERNMENT over the earth and reproducing Himself through mortal MAN, God had devised a MASTER PLAN for its accomplishment.
So first, learn about the GOVERNMENT of GOD no longer operative on earth. Of necessity all government is based on a foundational LAW or constitution — whether local city government, state government, national government or the GOVERNMENT OF GOD.
The government of GOD is based on His spiritual LAW. That LAW is a WAY OF LIFE! It is the way that will produce peace, happiness, contentment, joy, abundance for ALL — and for mortal MAN eternal salvation — immortal life as a GOD BEING!
It is the way of OUTFLOWING LOVE — first in obedience to and worship of God — secondly, loving human neighbor as one's self. I simplify this way of life by the term "GIVE" — cooperation, serving, helping, sharing. God Himself is the epitome of that — He is the great GIVER who, Himself, IS LOVE! The transgression of that spiritual LAW I term "GET" — vanity, covetousness, envy, jealousy, competition, strife, violence, resentment of authority.
The three divisions of government
In any government there are the three major divisions:
1) The lawmaking, or legislative. In the United States this is the Congress. In Britain, the Parliament. In the government of God, God the Father is LAWGIVER.
2) The executive. In the United States this is the president. In Britain, the prime minister. In the government of God it is CHRIST!
3) The judicial. In the United States this is the Supreme Court. In the government of God it is CHRIST, for all judgment has been given by the Father to Christ. The Father judges no man (John 5:22).
Because of the extreme sin of Lucifer and the angels (II Pet. 2:4, Isa. 14:12-14) the earth had come to a physical condition of decay, waste and emptiness (II Pet. 2:4-6, Gen. 1:2). So God renewed the face of the earth (Ps. 104:30) in six days to make it habitable for man (Gen. 1:2-26).
Now began God's supreme PURPOSE of reproducing Himself — creating holy GOD BEINGS as His very begotten GOD Children — from MAN made from the dust of the earth.
On the sixth day of that "creation week" (actually a renewal of the face of the earth) God created MAN after His own likeness (form and shape) out of the dust of the earth (Gen. 1:26, 2:7). But unlike the dumb animals, God breathed into men the essence of spirit, empowering the physical brain with thought-functioning MIND (I Cor. 2:11, Rom. 8:16).