January 20, 2012

“The World to Come”

While exiled on the island of Patmos, the Apostle John saw in VISION “The World to Come” (Hebrews 2:5):

“And I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth,

for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

Then I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

Then He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who THIRSTS.  He who OVERCOMES shall INHERIT all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.” He said to me, “  

A Series of Writings

Dear Brethren,

It is my purpose to begin writing a series of writings in the following areas:

1)      Before Time Began, God

2)      The Creation of Angels

3)      The Creation of the World

4)      The Antediluvian World -- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (or pre-diluvian) period – meaning "before the deluge" – is the period referred to in the Bible between the Creation of the Earth and the Deluge (flood) in the Biblical cosmology

5)      The World That Then Was, the Deluge or Noah’s Flood

6)      This Present Evil World

7)      The Wonderful World Tomorrow

8)      The Intermediate World, the 100-Year Period of the Great White Throne Judgment

9)      The Eternal World to Come

A Historical Review of Past Ages

My reason for these writings is to look back at the worlds that either have already perished, or prophesied to perish, with our FOCUS being on ‘The World to Come’ in mind.

The Spirit World that holds the promise of eternal existence, unto the ages of the ages, for all those who will be blessed to be BORN AGAIN into the Family of God our Father, and then wed to our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

By touching on some areas, and spending more time with others, should give each of us A Historical and Panorama View of all past and present existence while continuing to focus on the promised blessings of the Wonderful World Tomorrow, the Millennium, and after the Great White Throne Judgment Period of time, the ultimate blessing that will be ours in the ‘World to Come’ – God’s Eternal Spirit World of LOVE, Bliss and Total Righteousness.

All this and more will come to be with each one of God’s true people after having endured faithfully to the coming time of our promised change when Christ returns to this earth.

“And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:17) – then to dwell for all eternity in the World to Come, the New Jerusalem, with goals then before us that would stagger our imagination now if we fully knew (Hebrews 1:5-8).

By capturing this VISION of the ‘World to Come’, as revealed by God to the Apostle John, and keeping it ever before us should enable each of us to do our needful part in not letting the hard and trying problems of today and tomorrow totally swamp us.

For anyone to let this happen to them, he or she would find a most terrible and tragic ending to life by being burned up in the lake of fire (Hebrews 6. 10. Revelation 20:15).

A Sleeping World

The world is sleepingoblivious to the extremely hard times that will soon close suddenly on them like a snare.

We must struggle very hard to keep ourselves awake and vigilant— and praying ALWAYS to prevent this from happening to any of us (Luke 21:36).

There are the many warning Scriptures from Jesus Christ for His true people to see the pitfalls and dangers before us and avoid them as much as possible! And by the aid of His Holy Spirit there will continue to be deliverance for His people from these along with the present day and future problems.

The VISION given to the Apostle John of this New Spirit World is intended by Jesus Christ to always be our FOCUS that will lead us to the eternal and blissful future that is being kept in store for us. 

We MUST always have this PROPHETIC VISION in the forefront of our minds and deep within  our very hearts and beings or we are at terrible risk of ending up under the soles of the feet of the righteous (Malachi 4:1, 3).

This is borne out in Scripture:

Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is NO Prophetic Vision (margin) the people CAST OFF RESTRAINT (perish); but happy is he who KEEPS the law (by keeping the vision).

A Later Writing

Though I will be writing later about the beautiful “World to Come” with its eternal future for the God Family, it is enough for now to focus on the opening Scriptures about it in this present writing with the hope these Scriptures will always be in our minds and hearts.

To be continued—

In the next writing I plan on focusing on the first three areas of the nine listed above.

Your brother and servant in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Don Billingsley

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