When you were growing up, it seemed like the only thing that you knew anything about was pain and sorrow. Your parents were mean, and those that you cared about would die every so often, seeming to create greater and greater emptiness in your life. You'd occaisionally pray for God to do something to show you that He genuinely cared, that your life would be more exciting, and that perhaps you'd have something to talk about. The years came and went and though you'd have some good times, the grief would never quite fully go away.
Then one day, you heard the Gospel and suddenly everything became clear to you:
You needed to repent, believe on Jesus, read your Bible daily, and stay in Church
a.k.a. the four spiritual laws
But one day, that didn't quite seem to satisfy any more. You needed more explanations for all of the pain and why pain had to continue for all of eternity if someone failed to confess and live up to Christ in this one brief life where there was never certainty about how you'd genuinely get through life and whether or not those that you depended on today would be there for you tomorrow.
Then you found out about the Baptism with the Holy Spirit - claimed by some to be evidenced by speaking in other tongues.
"That's it!" you cried, "that's what I've been missing!"
So, you went to the front of the Church and received prayer and impartation ministry so that you were filled to overflowing with amazing power from another world. But still, something seemed missing. Then you heard about the authority delegated to the believer.
"That's it!" you cried, "that's what I've been missing!"
So, you started developing an understanding of your seating with Christ in heavenly places and how a believer is to conduct themselves in their royal priestly office by confessing the Word and believing that the High Priestly ministry of Jesus in heaven and the Holy Spirit within you on earth would bring every bit of it to pass. Lots of things were birthed into your life, and there were a few miscarriages along the way of things that you were so sure were going to be immediately manifested into your life. You still, though, overall, had the most amazing time of your life learning to walk with Jesus like Jesus, allowing the love of God to be fully perfected in it's manifestations through you as more and more of your thoughts were taken captive to the obedience of Christ through the Blood and the Promises that you were renewing yourself in continually.
Something's still missing, but what could it be? You've arrived! Haven't you? You're walking in the fullness of the Word of God, aren't you? Still, some of the promises are occaisionally starting to bother you:
He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul and be satisfied...
Whom the heavens must receive, until the restoration of all things, which God spoke by the mouths of all of His holy prophets since the world began...
But we know what happened to Carlton Pearson. And after all, the Church's decision is in total agreement with the KJV and other translations that by their own admission "follow in the traditions of the King James Version of the Bible."
Then one day, Jesus, in His High Priestly roll sprinkles you afresh with the Blood and sprinkles your Bible afresh for you, grabs you by the shoulders and looks you in the eyes and says:
LET THERE BE LIGHT!!!!
Could it be true? Could it? (*Tears flowing*) That can't possibly be true! After all, I was always taught....
But there it is!!
...that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He would gather together all things into one in Christ, of those in the heavens (i.e. where the conflict with Satan is) and in the earth (i.e. where the conflict with fallen man is), even in Him...
He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul and be satisfied...
Whom the heavens must receive, until the restoration of all things, which God spoke by the mouths of all of His holy prophets since the world began...
So you quietly sit there thinking, "if I ever fully accept this, this could ruin everything at Church, in my ministry, with my family, and maybe even with my spouse and kids..." To make matters worse, this Scripture comes to you:
If you're ashamed of Me, I'll also be ashamed of you in the Presence of the Father and of His Angels.
But as you're wrestling with this, you're also hearing verses in your mind about:
itchy ears;
men who won't endure sound doctrine;
latter days deceptions;
different Gospels;
evil men waxing worse and worse;
etc.
What if the plan of God didn't involve punishment in the way that we tend to think of punishment? What if the plan of God involved casting out fear where ever it's found instead of "giving people a taste of their own medicine?" What if Christ in His exalted Form could confront every single individual at the moment of their death with their judgment? What if Christ took all pain so that His process of transforming every life wouldn't require His purposefully inflicting pain?
What if embracing Christ in this world were only about Adoption and greater glorification? What if it didn't have any baring on people reaching Heaven? What if, as star differs from star in glory, so is the resurrection of the dead?
What if God looks at every sinner at the moment of their death and says, "you've been through enough?"
What if suicide only cost someone the unspeakable glories of Sonship?
What if Christ really did finish the Work that the Father gave Him to do? What if love really never fails? What if there isn't anywhere else to go but Heaven because Christ destroyed Hell in His resurrection? What if there's nowhere else to go?
What if no one sows corn on earth and reaps corn bread on the moon? What if that's utter nonsense? What if the process is as exclusively through Christ as it was exclusively through Adam until Christ came?
What if the Victory was genuinely won 2000 years ago? What if obedience in this life is only about rewards and hastening the time when physical death and pain is abolished? What if disobedience and death without submission to Christ wouldn't prevent His work of saving them from their sins, even if they never inherited Sonship?
What if the second death is nothing more than the death of any possibility for Sonship? What if life and love are as certain for all of the wicked of the world as if they were already in Heaven? What if God sends His Sun on the wicked and the righteous and sends Rain on the just and the unjust?
How would you preach if you knew that there was absolutely no Hell, either eternal or temporal? How would you preach if you knew that Sonship and rewards were the only thing at stake because of there being no curse associated with the New Covenant?
What if Christ has already abolished death in every sense except for physically? What if He's already won?
What if getting a gun and getting to point it right between the eyes of the biggest terrorist and pulling the trigger before they could repent and embrace the Lordship of Christ in this life would cost them nothing more than Sonship and unimaginable future glories? What if after costing them that, there were no more penalty upon them except perhaps an inferior physical resurrection in the last day of this present existence? What if Heaven were immediate for Osama Bin Ladin although, again, without the dimensions of Identity, Glory, and Sonship that he could have had, had he renounced his sins as an offering of faith and proceeded to embrace the Lordship of Jesus by faith? What if finally understanding all that he'd ever wanted to understand were the furtherest extent of his loss on the opposite end of the spectrum after his loss of Sonship with God through Jesus Christ?
What if perpetually meeting the needs of all of creation in boundless love were the extent of the destiny of the Sons of God through Jesus Christ?
What if there's no such thing as "Hell" or "Damnation?" What if those are only accusations against the fullest conquest of the cross of Christ? And what if that's why "Hell" and "Damnation" are considered pejoratives and expletives?
What if Hell is gone forever?
As you're thinking about these things, you keep wondering, "why am I having to look at this, when everybody at my Church is perfectly comfortable believing in the Augustinian/Aquinas paradigm?"
Your increasingly more and more uncomfortable by certain things being preached in Church, yet to the unaided eye, your KJV seems to confirm much of what's being preached in Church.
You're scared to death, aren't you? You don't want to lose your ministry! You don't want to lose the support of the Christians in your city? Have you taken up your cross to follow Christ - no matter what, and no matter which of His ways that He declares to distinctly not be your ways? Why is God doing this to you? Why is He making you look at this?
He loves you! You didn't know there'd eventually be genuine consequences to God loving you so much, did you?
Welcome to the Body of Christ!!
