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The two prophets are Mases
and Jesus, like-minded, to–
tal/y in agreement at the heart
of any matter. The One who
became Jesus was the One
whom Mases knew as YHVH–
the Spokesman, the Word, the
Lagos, the Lord of the Old
Testament. This One revealed
to Mases that every human
being would have his one op–
portunity for salvation, despite
his intervening death in his
own uncalled generation; that
there was in God's design one
Last Great Day when al/ past
generations would be physi–
cally resurrected to be given
their one and only chance. In
addition, He told Moses that
the purpose of human lite was
to become God as God is
God! No pie-in-the-sky, harp–
plucking, cloud-floating eter–
nally retired psalm singers,
but real, active, a/1-powerful
sons of God! But the question
is: What wi/1 those sons of
God be doing? What does our
Father have in mind to keep
us busy-joyfully, eternally
productive?
byJon Hill
T
he great Creatorofall that is has a
plan for you and me whicb far
exceeds the most vivid imagin–
ings ofmen, who have come up with
rewards for the saved which are so
vague, ephemeral and basically un–
desirable. The good news, the gospel
Jesus preached and the prophets and
apostleswrote about, is the good news
of the Kingdom ofGod.
All religions are aware of this, but
have spiritualized away the heart of
the good news by either making that
Kingdom of God in heaven (and
hence having nothing to do with the
earth), or concluding that the church
is the Kingdom. Neither idea is sub–
stantiated in the pages of the Bible.
Believe it or not, there is no scripture
from Genesis to Revelation which
states that the reward of the saved is
heaven! Yet, on the other hand, there
are many very specific statements
about the Kingdom of God being
here on tbis earth.
Bible Unorthodox
Most of orthodox Christianity is
unanimous in believing that the re–
ward of the saved is heaven. Vague
and misinterpreted scriptures are
used to document this belief, along
with a generous amount of human
imagination. Fortunately, the Bible
itself is
not
"orthodox" and has
many plain, detailed, clear state–
ments about the reward of the saved
being God's literal rulership in His
Kingdom here on this earth!
Let's choose to be bíblica! rather
than "orthodox" and see what is the
reward of the saved as revealed in
the Scri ptures.
A kingdom has four basic ele–
ments: 1) a king; 2) subjects; 3) sov–
ereign territory; 4) laws. Everyone is
in agreement with that as far as the
kingdoms of this world are con–
cerned. Each kingdom jealously
guards its own integrity. Wars are
fought over disputed boundaries;
succession of rulers, laws regarding
the subjects' rights. But when we
come to the Kingdom of God the
general desire is to make it seem
unreal. God is "allowed" to be
King, but God is in His heaven and
we are here on earth, and the "spiri–
tual realm" is deliberately made
vague, powerless- except as repre–
sented by human beings taking the
name
of the god they worship in
order to exercise control over their
subjects.
The whole concept of God and
ATALEOF
TWO PROPHETS
20
His Kingdom is put in fantasy land,
never-never land, the life hereafter,
dismissed from today's or tomor–
row's reality. To consider that the
one who
made
the earth would ever
be interested in
governing
what He
has made is anathema! Separate
cburch and state as much as pos–
sible (which is ao excellent practice,
seeing few pay any attention to
what God says anyway). Keep God
in heaven and out of temporal af–
fairs at all costs- except as the idea
of God might be used to control
people. Plato put it this way: "It was
indeed a wise man who first con–
ceived the idea of God !"
If it really were man who "con–
ceived" God, then we can continue
to have our own concept of the fu–
ture Iife. But if it were really God
who invented mankind, and He did
so with a specific purpose in mind
which He reveals plainly in His
Word, then it would behoove us to
consider
His
ideas, purposes and
s tatements.
If
you believe the
former, then there is no need to read
further. If you believe tbe latter,
read on ...
A Few Plain Scriptures
Since general belief goes contrary to
biblical statements, let's examine
just a few quotes from God's Word
which have no meaning if heaven is
the reward of the saved, but have
tremendous impact if we consider
the Bible to be true.
Al)raham, the father of the faith–
ful (Gal. 3:7), whose children you
are if you are Christ's, and so heirs
to promises made to Abraham (Gal.
3:29), was promised by God
/and
forever!
(Gen. 13: 15 .) God says the
land belongs to Him forever and we
are mere sojourners and strangers
living on it (Lev. 25:23).
· The message of Daniel covers the
entirety of history from the Babylo–
nian Empire until the establishment
of the Kingdom of God on earth.