The World and the Word

                The Advents and Judgments of Christ

Jesus endorsed God's lesser form of salvation when He told the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:17 that he would "enter into life" if he kept the commandments which included the sin and burnt offerings for his forgiveness when he failed to keep the Ten Commandments. Jesus could not have meant salvation by grace because obedience to the law cannot save one by God's grace. Jesus had to have meant the promise that God gave to Moses in Deuteronomy 4:40 that faithful Jews will obtain a recreated life on a future recreated earth. Even the worst humans have done some good in life. For this reason, Jesus promised in John 5:28-29 that in the end of the world, He will raise all living humans from their graves for Him to recreate to inhabit His new earth. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5. Jesus gave this same promise to the lawyer in Luke 10:25-28 who did not believe that Jesus was His Savior. God has promised a higher form of the lesser form of salvation to all faithful Jews in that He will allow them to be citizens of the nation of Israel that will rule the recreated earth. Isaiah 66:10-24.

Jesus also promised a Pharisee in Luke 14:14 that he would be rewarded for his good works "at the resurrection of the just." This Pharisee was not saved by grace, so Jesus had to have meant that God will raise the good image of God that He put into this Pharisee to a new life on earth as He promised in Deuteronomy 4:40. Jesus also informed a group of Pharisees in Luke 17:21 that "the kingdom of God is within you" by which He could only have meant the good image of God that He had put into them. In John 10:34-35, Jesus reminded the Jews who sought to stone Him that their scripture taught them that they were "gods" by which He could only have meant the good image of Himself that He had put into them. Psalm 82:6. Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees for their oppressive sins against their own people, but He also sometimes referred to some good works which they did which could only have come out of His good image in them. Matthew 23:1-36; Matthew 23:23. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14. Even the worst humans demonstrate that they possess God's good image in them by the few good works they do. Jesus did warn the Pharisees that He would cast them into Hell for their evil works, but He did not say they would be there forever.

In Isaiah 66:22-24, the prophet informs all humans who ever lived who will still be in their graves in the end of the world that they will all come to Jerusalem to worship God on His recreated earth. They will also observe their own "worms," which symbolizes their separated, evil natures as they squirm in the lake of fire. Mark 9:44, 46, 48. In Revelation 22:11-12, God informs all living humans that He will extend His rewards to all of them whom He will raise from the dead in His general resurrection. Revelation 20:5; Matthew 16:27. God also informs that He will use His consuming fire, symbolized by the burnt offering, to dissolve all the systems of all humans confined to the regions of the dead in order to separate all of their filthy and dead natures from them for Him to cast into the lake of fire and raise their cleansed, living natures to a new life on His new earth. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Genesis 8:20-21; II Peter 9:9-13; Hebrews 12:29; Revelation 21:8.