As was explained in the posting on the three resurrections, those who take part in the Lord’s Second advent–both dead and living “in Him”–will be resurrected at that time, rise to meet Him in the air and will remain with Him forever (1 Thes. 4:16,17). Following the mid-air gathering, He and they will descend to Jerusalem where He will establish the Kingdom of God (Zech. 14:4). His return will take place in the midst of World War III. Following His merciful ending of the war, He and His saints will, for the next thousand years–the “millennium”–rule and reign over God’s kingdom (Rev. 20:6;22:5). See The Resurrections and The Kingdom of God.

At the end of the millennium a second resurrection will take place in which those who were converted during the millennium will be brought back to life along with those who, during the current age, failed to accept the Lord. These will include church people who were led by Satan to join his Counterfeit Church system (Catholicism/Protestantism). This resurrection precedes the “Great White Throne” judgment as described in Revelation 20:11,12. The third resurrection will involve unrepentant sinners from all ages past (Rev. 20:13-15) who will be cast into the Lake of “… fire and brimstone” described in Revelation 21:8. These will include both churched and unchurched who, as Paul warned the church of Rome, have earned the “wages of sin”–death (6:23). Note that Paul was writing to God’s church about God’s church, and was warning sinners in God’s church that if they continued to sin they would die (in gehenna). That God is no respecter of persons is brought out in Hebrews 10:26,27–those who believe that they can defy God (see the Introduction to this website) and get away with it because they are supposedly “saved” will die the “second death” (Rev. 2:11)–their physical bodies (souls) will be “devoured” in the Lake of Fire (vs. 27). Churched or unchurched–the wages of sin (breaking God’s Law-1 Jn. 3:4) is the same–a fiery death. Only their “worm” (conscience) will remain alive forever to regret decisions made while living in the flesh. As the Scriptures tell us, the merciful God will destroy sinners in the Lake of Fire. He will not allow them to burn alive, writhing in agony for eternity as we are taught. His true, kingdom-ruling saints will then walk on their ashes (Mal. 4:3).

To avoid the fire of gehenna one must obey God’s Word, thereby ridding him/herself of sin as He commands. A summary of His requirements for receiving eternal life is found in 1 John 3:5-10: Jesus died to take sin out of our lives (5); to abide in (to know) Him one must rid oneself of sin (6); to be righteous (“in Him”) one must do works of righteousness equal to His works of righteousness (7). Through John, Jesus tells us that anyone–churched or unchurched–who sins is of (serves) the devil. This automatically disqualifies one from being a child of God in that one can only serve one master. Jesus came to free the believer from Satan’s power (8). One who has been converted does not sin, for God’s seed (Word) remains in him and he cannot sin, meaning that he/she can sin but refuses to do so. Sin is a choice. The doing of works of righteousness is what distinguishes God’s people from Satan’s people. One who does not “do righteousness” is of the devil (10).

Peter warns the Church of God that only the righteous in the body of Christ will be saved, and they just barely (1 Pet. 4:18). “I’m just a sinner saved by grace” is a mantra coined by Satan himself. There is no such thing as saved sinnER. As pointed out in an earlier posting, to add “er” to the end of a verb (runnER, paintER, flyER) means that this is what one does in the course of one’s normal daily activities. It is part of one’s regular lifestyle–running, painting, flying. A sinnER is one who sins in the course of his/her normal daily life. By saying of oneself, “I AM (present tense) a sinnER …” shows that sin IS a normal part of one’s everyday life, meaning that serving Satan is part of one’s current lifestyle. This is the exact opposite of conversion. “Conversion” means to do a 180 degree about-face and to go in the exact opposite direction, to turn from doing sin (being a sinnER) to doing righteousness (being a righteousER). Doing righteousness is the result of true conversion. Continuing to sin following a so-called “salvation experience” is false conversion. See the posting by that name. Note also that no one is saved in this age. See Hope and Salvation. The above reveals that being a “sinner saved by grace” is impossible. Satan coined the expression and sold it to the masses in order to lull them into believing that the fix is in–come as you are (a sinnER) and stay as you are (a sinnER). The difference between pre and post “salvation” is that once one is “saved” one’s sins automatically turn into innocuous “opps” that have no consequence as long as one repents regularly and obeys church doctrine.

A so-called “saved sinnER” has embraced Satan’s false salvation. Such people are the recipients of Satan’s  “dumbing down” program in which salvation is awarded for showing up and going through the motions. This is known in athletic circles as a “participation trophy.” This is nothing more than religious “affirmative action,” a theological mind-set that states that, because God knows you must sin due to Adam’s miraculous insertion of his sin gene into your spiritual dna, He provides carte blanc sin coverage to those in “the church.” “The church” is the one to which one belongs. Those seeking the Lord know the Truth and follow His command to “Come ye out from among them (sinnERS saved by grace) and be ye separate … touch not the unclean thing (the Counterfeit Church) and (then and only then) I will be your God and you will be My people” (2 Cor. 6:17). The fires of gehenna await those–churched and unchurched–who refuse to heed His call. L.J.