The world has been deluded for centuries by the idea of a heaven and a hell, with nothing in between except a narrow line. The realms between those two extreme degrees are as varied and numerous as there are degrees of righteousness and evil.
With the information concerning godhood and the possibility of individuals from this earth finally being able to attain unto such ultimate glory it should be quite evident why it is so necessary to begin right here in mortality to develop divine self-control and majesty.
The only thing that really matters in eternity is not what one knows or has or professes to be but only what he IS! God-like virtues and qualities alone can make one God-like and prepare him for dominion and rulership among the high hierarchy of heaven as he travels this sacred Highway of the Gods -- "This Road to Zion or to the complete purification of the heart!" This Straight and Narrow Way, which leads to Life Eternal, is the one in which one need never die. But to live forever without a goal or a purpose is meaningless nonsense.
Only those who OVERCOME and are truly "Born of the Spirit" can possibly become co-heirs or joint-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ! And this must be partially achieved while one is still in the flesh, otherwise the flesh cannot be exalted and glorified and then one is required to relinquish the body for a period of time or until the appointed season of the resurrection when he will have to stand before God and be judged, according to everything he did or failed to do, while in mortality.
Rev. 21:7: "He that OVERCOMETH shall inherit all things!"
The resurrection does not change anyone too much except to return to them their bodies, no longer subject to death. Rev. 20:12-14: "And I saw the dead small and great stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged (AND WILL HAVE TO ANSWER) out of those things written in the books, ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS!"
This is the resurrection and this is the judgment, which Paul admonished the Saints to leave behind, as he counseled them to "GO ON UNTO PERFECTION," in which these lesser things would have no part. (Heb. 6:1-2)
In I Cor. 15:40-42, is given the following information: "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
"There is one glory of the sun, and another of the moon, another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another in glory.
"So also is the resurrection of the dead!"
This glory of the stars, which is as varied as the stars in heaven in brilliance and in dimness and in the stages in between, is called "Telestial glory." Though in some realms or upon some lesser stars there is very little glory at all. The myriad degrees of glory in the Telestial realms are prepared for the numerous types of individuals of this earth who are resurrected with their sins and their weaknesses still upon them.
The pickpockets and petty thieves will probably be placed together where they can pick each other's pockets until they are satiated with the futility of such perverse, wasted, contrary behavior and with all their souls yearn for a way of escape.
The liars will automatically seek their own realms where lies can be told and retold until only the liar himself is listening to his tales and is eventually awakened to the point of sheer agonizing frustration as he begins to comprehend the desolation and the dreariness of his condition, and begins to yield himself to a new desiring.
The lust-filled, greedy, murderous individuals will be sent out to worlds as insignificant as those most obscure, dim, pinpoints of light -- worlds completely without glory -- stars without honor. These are the souls who will be clothed in "eternal shame" as Daniel describes.
In Revelations 21:8 is given this dynamic information: "The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, the murderers and whoremongers; and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death."
It is at first most startling to hear that the FEARFUL and UNBELIEVERS are the ones who head that list of desecrated, defiled individuals who receive no glory whatsoever.
Why are the FEARFUL and the UNBELIEVERS the first on the list of great sinners, those listed for a degree of damnation, known as the second death?
Let us examine this information. We learn that it is not the "MEEK" who are the timid, groveling, cringing weaklings, but the FEARFUL! The fearful are the ones who lack courage! They lack initiative! They lack the qualities to probe into anything their orthodoxed minds have not already accepted, that they might KNOW TRUTH! They have a deadly fear of TRUTH lest it undermine their false sand castles of error and dethrone false ideas and their false gods. They are cringing cowards, living in their own dark prisons of unprogressiveness. They are damned and realize it not. Damnation is only the state where one's progress is stopped and he ceases to advance because of his own rejection of Light.
The fearful can never accept the divine challenge of Jesus, Christ, Son of the Living God, "TO PROVE ALL THINGS!" They can prove nothing, not even their own erroneous beliefs. By shouting louder than anyone else they seal their ears and their minds to any new information or divine enlightenment. They do not even have the courage to look at one single new truth or to seek to compare the light with their own darkness.
TRUTH itself is the greatest reward in all existence. And those who seek to prove any idea in prayerful humility, will be "taught of God" and will receive a KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH. And those who KNOW THE TRUTH are forever free! Abundantly, Gloriously FREE! They step forth with courage and in joy as they travel the Straight and Narrow Way of eternal progress.
Those who are cringing cowards know nothing of "The Life More Abundant" which Christ came to give! They do not really know how to live in joy and happiness. They are bound by every conformity and by their lack of confidence in God or in His powers to protect them from evil. How can "They trust in Him with all their hearts” when they trust only in their own understandings? These FEARFUL ONES deny the Holy Ghost, refusing It the power to function in their lives as the Revealer of ALL TRUTH. Their very lives become skimped and warped and ugly and they know nothing at all about "THE LIFE MORE ABUNDANT" which Christ came to give.
No wonder the FEARFUL are the first on the list to be cast out with the dogs and the unbelievers and the whoremongers and the sorcerers and murderers.
The FEARFUL lack love completely. In fact, they have never known love, either for God, or for others. Nor do they have any love or desire for the TRUTH -- the great emancipator! For the PROMISE is: "KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE! AND HE WHO IS FREE SHALL BE FREE INDEED." Neither do they understand nor believe in this eternal Truth of Almighty God: "PERFECT LOVE CASTS OUT ALL FEAR!"
Man is commanded to "search all things and HOLD FAST TO THAT WHICH IS GOOD!" In order to know fully what is GOOD one would have to search into all things, discarding that which is evil as he trusts in God with all his heart. Then only can one KNOW TRUTH -- and HOLD FAST TO IT!"
The DOUBTING or UNBELIEVERS are those who are always looking for an excuse to disbelieve in order that they might be exempt from all responsibility or FULFILLING the great TRUTHS and admonition of God. They never seek to PROVE anything but only to DISPROVE. They dig deep into the darkness in order to cling to every adverse doctrine that they might justify themselves in seeking to escape every divine responsibility. It is more difficult for these who flee from TRUTH to open up their own sealed minds than it is to relinquish their lives to the darkness.
And so it is that the FEARFUL and the UNBELIEVING are the leaders who stand at that broad, open Way which leads to destruction. And giving their full allegiance to that broad, open path of darkness they stand insisting that the entire world enter therein. To these who have refused to accept the Light of Christ or the powers of the divine Holy Spirit to lead them into ALL TRUTH can only follow the erring multitudes, the popular dogmas as they close their eyes to TRUTH. Only in mass conformity can they feel secure. These are the weaklings and the cowards, not the MEEK.
"Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, TO GIVE TO EVERY MAN ACCORDING AS HIS WORKS SHALL BE:" (or rather, has been).
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
"BLESSED ARE THEY THAT DO HIS COMMANDMENTS, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
"For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." (Rev. 22:12-15).
This quotation and the previous one telling of the second death are both from the Book of Revelations and each verifies the other and substantiates the dynamic truth that there will be many who will come forth in the resurrection without any glory whatsoever.
Daniel verifies this fact in the twelfth chapter and the second verse of his sacred work, as follows: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, SOME TO EVERLASTING LIFE, AND SOME TO SHAME AND EVERLASTING CONTEMPT."
Then we have this beautiful record of Christ's prayer: "Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
"For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
"FOR THEM I PRAY: I PRAY NOT FOR THE WORLD, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine." (John 17:7-9).
Always there have been the rewards and the penalties attached to every action. And yet there are still many who see not and who believe not the words of God, but accept rather the Devil's doctrine that all will be redeemed with equal glory through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, regardless of what they did or did not do in this life. And such make God a liar and make His word null and void.
Each and every soul will be exalted or retarded in his eternal progress according to his own desiring and fulfilling as he lives according to the cravings of the flesh or according to the righteous desirings of his own inner soul.
Then this word stands forth in a PROMISE of eternal meaning: "THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH!" Not the unrighteous, not the proud and selfish, not the wicked, not the lustful or the dangerously greedy or the profane -- BUT THE MEEK!"
And now, the "MEEK" must be introduced in their full robes of glory. The "MEEK" are not the weaklings, the cringing, fearful, groveling, apologetic nobodies that the world has supposed.
The "MEEK" ARE the MIGHTY! They are the ones, like Jesus Christ, who have learned to control their every vibration in a majesty of power so dynamic they could rock the very earth with their continued silence as they were mocked or tortured or slain. And their reactions to mockery or persecution would have the power to silence their mockers, bring their accusers to repentance or to even paralyze their persecutors, if so be they were led to use their accumulated powers in such a manner. But regardless of how they used the overwhelming strength of their controlled, righteous vibrations, they would themselves be Masters, standing unharmed, uninjured and divinely powerful as they would hold their SILENCE, even as Christ did at His trial. They would have the power to radiate only the glory of released love. And this is MAJESTY! This is MEEKNESS! And such as these will be the inheritors of this earth when it is glorified.
Christ's atonement was given as a gift of choice. It is the glory of man's free agency to receive or to reject. He who desires that gift of redemption and who seeks for the eternal blessings connected with it also is proving his BELIEF in the PROMISES and in GOD and in JESUS CHRIST and in all the teachings which are involved in such a glorious privilege.
There is another prophet's words concerning the resurrection which definitely states: "And in the resurrection those who are filthy will be filthy still; and those who are unhappy shall be unhappy still!"
Death and the resurrection does not change a wicked person into a saint. Each individual will indeed be held accountable for the deeds done in the flesh -- unless he OVERCOMES and sanctifies his body -- and follows Paul's admonition to "GO ON UNTO PERFECTION!" Or as Christ commanded, "Pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect!" In this great command is given the law of perfect forgiveness, the law of being forgiven -- the law of utter glory, and none have ever BELIEVED IN IT!
Paul gives this positive statement in I Cor. 15:51 "Behold, I show you a mystery; WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP, (or go through death) but we shall all be changed.
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." etc.
This scripture has been used to help justify the false belief that ALL will be resurrected into a status of eternal glory. This is not so!
When one fails to use the privilege of his own purified desiring "and fails to OVERCOME the evils of his life," they overcome him. And those very evils bring on the full power of corruptibility as disease or old age or some dreaded calamity finally lays him in the grave. In this way one carries his mortal, corruptible body with him into its fulness of corruption right on into death. And the body is placed deep in the earth, "sown in corruption." "For the wages of sin is death". Thus the wages of his sin and failure to OVERCOME and fulfill all righteousness is truly complete corruption.
But when any body is brought forth from the grave, through the power of the resurrection, it cannot again be destroyed by illness or by death, though that individual, as Daniel declared in his Twelfth chapter, may only be resurrected to "eternal shame" -- not into glory, though he does receive a body that can not again put on corruption or the diseases of the flesh.
The erroneous doctrine of complete purification and glory for every evil, wicked, abhorrent sinner is totally without scriptural foundation.
Often those who have looked only at the WORDS (WHICH KILLETH) without the Spirit of enlightenment, have assumed such a complete forgiveness from the parable of the laborers in the vineyard -- those who went to work at sunrise and worked all through the heat of the long, arduous day -- those who went to work the second hour -- and the third -- and the fourth, etc., until the last hour. And those who worked only that one short hour in the cool of the day yet received a full day's wages. But those who put such a meaning on this parable are without understanding.
This parable is telling of the "WORKERS" who were eager to work, those who waited patiently in the Market Place through those long, tiresome hours, hoping, perhaps praying that they might be called to serve in some way. This parable is speaking only of those who were prepared to work, eager to work and most desirous of finding a place of service. It is not speaking of the slothful, the unwilling or those desirous of escaping all responsibility. Neither is it speaking of the residents of the city in which the Market Place existed. Neither is it speaking of the realm where the LABORERS resided. And it certainly is not speaking of the inhabitants of the world. It mentions only those who were prepared to work and who were desirous of working, not of those who had no intention of ever doing an honest day's labor. The LABORERS, of which this parable deals, are the ones prepared, and hoping and eager to render service to some master. They were not slothful, nor were they seeking to gain rewards through any evil, cheating means or methods of violence.
This is indeed a glorious parable. It is a parable of mercy and love -- and rewards for those who find their niche or place of service, mayhap, at the very last hour. But with God it is intentions that count. And in this parable the righteous desires and intentions of men will be the measuring rod of their reward. Such will be God's rewards for the honest in heart and those who are willing to serve Him, even though they only enter the ranks of the workers at the last possible hour.
Justice is for those who die because they did not OVERCOME while in the flesh. And each of these will be judged according to his works. And even the worst sinner will acknowledge that God's judgments are just -- and that the rewards or punishments were according to their merits, even though they are cast out of the city with those who have no part in glory or in rewards.
Mercy is for those who OVERCOME, even as Christ OVERCAME! Mercy is for those who love God with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength. These will receive MERCY insomuch that their sins, though they may have been as scarlet, will never come in remembrance before the Lord. They will even be blotted forever from the memory of him who committed them, TO HIM WHO OVERCOMES!
Those who OVERCOME will inherit the highest degree of glory for they will have done the works which Christ did, the works of OVERCOMING. Thus they will be co-heirs, yes, joint-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, or be co-equal with Him. And only those who OVERCOME while in this life, have any such PROMISE.
This divine Pathway of OVERCOMING is the divine Highway of the Gods and as Isaiah proclaimed, "only the righteous can travel it." "The wicked can never cross over it, though a fool need not err therein." (Isa. 35:8)
For the multitude who will have traveled that broad, open way of corruption and sin, that leads to death or to destruction, there is awaiting the resurrection -- AND THE JUDGMENT. Paul, however, in Heb. 6:1-2, admonished the saints to leave this doctrine behind as they would go on unto perfection. In perfection, which is the fulness of OVERCOMING, neither the resurrection nor the judgment have any part.
Those who travel the Straight and Narrow Way of OVERCOMING, (which is the works which Christ did) will have OVERCOME ALL THINGS -- even DEATH!
For them there is no judgment. And their bodies having overcome sin, which brings on corruption and death will have no need of the resurrection. For them there is nothing but glory! Just everlasting glory! "For when He appears they will be like Him -- And everyone who has this hope purifieth himself even as He is pure!"
Herein are stated the eternal truths of progress and of divinity and of Godliness and the absolute knowledge that our mission in life is to glorify Christ -- in majesty and humility, in the perfection of love and in the purification of our hearts until we too OVERCOME, EVEN AS HE OVERCAME! Then only can anyone go on to do the GREATER WORKS or to receive the highest degree of Celestial glory. This reward must be earned through a love and devotion that reaches beyond mortality and all the laws thereof into eternal fulfillment -- even Godhood.
Mortality itself is a condition halfway between the highest heaven and the lowest hell. And it is right here in mortality where one must make his choice as he lays hold of the laws of the kingdom he will inherit.
Those who approve Christ's sayings only as they nod their heads in acquiescence to these glorious promises and laws, yet do not live by them or fulfill them, are truly only deceiving themselves and in doing so OVERCOME nothing at all. They are still just grubby mortals. "Even the devils believe, and tremble!"
He who breaks every mortal law has only qualified himself for an existence with the lawless. The lower the laws an individual lives by the lower will be the realm to which he automatically is consigned when the judgment or future assignments are made. Each man is going to be judged out of the books or out of the record of his own doings, undoings or misdoings, according to his works.
This is not the parable of the workers in the vineyard. This is the eternal truth and reality of the judgment. And no man can change it. "It is irrevocable!" It is JUSTICE and it will be the great JUDGMENT in action for it is God's! And He is just and so are His judgments.
However the laws of God are eternal progress! This is the power of Christ's glorious atonement. When the wicked, mayhap from the lowest depths of hell, which in itself is only a condition of burning regret, have paid the uttermost farthing of their debts to God and to humanity, they will eventually be released to receive new opportunities as they slowly evolve from their stations of remorse into new paths of progress.
But they can never, "Worlds without end,” inherit the same degree of glory which the OVERCOMERS inherit because, without any delays or retardments to restrict them, the co-heirs with Christ go on without delays or restraints into the realm of Godhood. And worlds without end the others can never catch up. They may reach a high point of glory in the eternities but always the OVERCOMERS will be far, far ahead.
There are Saints and there are sinners and there are rewards and there are PROMISES and there are judgments and condemnations. And he who denies these conditions denies his own intelligence and the wisdom and the truth of God.
If one can prove that any child who refuses to abide by the laws of learning can receive a degree of higher qualifications, then that one only proves that all efforts are wasted and in vain -- all love is non-existent or squandered -- and all promises and rewards are a lie and worthless. Rewards must be EARNED else they cannot be used for they would be of no value.
Even as one puts new information into his mind, by the exerted effort of application, so one implants virtues and divine qualifications into his own being by the continual effort and desire of his soul.
All rewards must be EARNED. And in the earning one grows into a person of quality and honor and majesty and renown. Power can only be entrusted to those who master the use of it in a concentrated control of emotions and thoughts as they grow or evolve into perfection.
"Those divine treasures in heaven" which are to be laid up in the innermost part of one's being are the virtues developed through application. And man becomes those virtues, the wearer and possessor of those jewels. He becomes the divine recipient of all the glories of heaven! He becomes divine because he has earned divinity. And in no other way can it be given -- or received.
If such jewels of divine perfection were given to the wicked they could not appreciate them or use them. They would trample them under their feet and again turn to rend the GIVER. And after they had been cleansed and glorified they would still be themselves and would fulfill fully the parable of Christ, "Returning like dogs to their vomit or like swine to their wallow". The traits they have built into themselves through their thinking and acting habits are what they really are. And they will remain just what they are until and unless they eventually begin to change through their own efforts and desiring.
"Come unto me all who LABOR (or who are struggling to OVERCOME MORTALITY) and I will give you rest; which is the fulness of my glory! Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy, for it is love; and my burden is Light, even the great Light of Eternal glory!" But even in this only those who are desirous and who are laboring are invited to partake of the glorious blessings Christ is so freely offering to the world.
Only those who LABOR or who are working to achieve can possibly receive or appreciate such glorious rewards. THEY MUST BE EARNED! This is the everlasting law of eternity.
"There is a law irrevocable decreed in heaven, before the foundations of the world, upon which all blessings are predicated. And when one receives any blessing from God it must be upon obedience to that law upon which it is predicated!" So is the irrevocable, eternal law of God! And God changes not! Neither does He change His laws to conform to some mortal's sinful hope, or mere "say-so!" And God gave His word before the foundations of the world that that law would govern the rewards given upon this earth as long as this earth would stand. And He gave His word that that law was irrevocable and even He could not change it because He had given His Word! And certainly no man's erroneous beliefs can make the least difference in this eternal TRUTH -- either of its fulfilling or of its rejection. It stands with the absolute Promise of God backing it up. And only by the living of the laws upon which the blessings are predicated can they possibly be received. SO HAS GOD SPOKEN!
And so have I been commanded to testify!