One of the teachings currently popular within the
expanding population of gurus of the mid-Acts movement,
is that the Church are God’s heavenly people and that
Israel were God’s earthly people until they were
blinded by unbelief and stumbled at the stumbling stone of Jesus Christ, then
rejected his Holy Spirit with the stoning of Stephen. From
The Church, though citizens of heaven, are
nevertheless God’s earthly ambassadors during this present age of grace. From
After the rapture of the Church,
So it is true that
I think the idea behind the earth/heaven division is
that the grace age saints are destined to populate planets in the physical
heavens above – i.e. outer space. Some mid-Acts teachers divide the Bible from
Genesis 1:1 on this basis, therefore they are referring to the heaven created
in Genesis 1:1.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis
1:1 AV)
“And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the
morning were the second day.” (Genesis 1:8 AV)
If the heaven of God’s heavenly people is the heaven
of Genesis 1:1 and 1:8, then it is the physical heaven of stars and planets,
the realm fictionally explored by Captain Kirk and the crew of the
But this heaven will be destroyed by fire, according
to the word of God.
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter
When the saints are caught up, the scripture says “and
so shall we ever be with the Lord”. We cannot “ever be with the Lord” in a
heaven that has a use-by date.
“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be
with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians
There is another problem too. When
the saints are clothed upon with their “house which is from heaven” (their
celestial bodies), they will be “as the angels of God in heaven”.
“There are also celestial bodies,
and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory
of the terrestrial is another.” (1 Corinthians
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, an house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be
clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2 AV)
“Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do
err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection
they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in
heaven.” (
The saints will be
clothed upon with an eternal, celestial body and then sent to populate planets
in a temporary, physical realm? I don’t think so. The angels have similar
bodies and they never stick around in the physical realm very long. The Lord’s
celestial body was too bright for any inhabitant of an earth-like planet to
look upon.
“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his
brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain
apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and
his raiment was white as the light.” (
“At
The saints will be
clothed upon with an eternal, celestial body and dwell ETERNALLY in the ETERNAL
heavens.
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
(2 Corinthians 5:1 AV)
“And the Lord shall deliver me from every
evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (2 Timothy
Unfortunately the
scriptures use the same word to describe the temporary, physical realm of stars
and planets as they use to describe God’s ETERNAL heavenly realm – Sion,
“But
“But ye are come unto
The eternal heaven
cannot be the heaven created in Genesis 1:1, which has a beginning and an end
and can be seen. The things which are seen are temporal. The heaven and earth
created in Genesis 1:1 are TEMPORAL.
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen: for the things which
are seen are temporal; but the
things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians
The heaven which is
NOT SEEN is ETERNAL.
“I knew a man in Christ above
fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the
body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught
up to the third heaven.” (2 Corinthians 12:2 AV)
The third heaven is
beyond the realm of the heaven and earth created in Genesis 1:1.
“He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all
heavens, that he might fill all things.)” (Ephesians
It is the realm FROM
which the creation of Genesis 1:1 took place – God’s eternal heavenly realm.
God existed prior to Genesis 1:1. He must have. I cannot say when he populated
this invisible realm with the angels but it was obviously prior to
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”
(Colossians 1:16 AV)
Eternal life has no
beginning and no end therefore the eternal realm has no beginning and no end.
God and his (presently) invisible, infinite, eternal heavenly realm are
indivisible.
After the rapture, the Church will most likely replace
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present
themselves before the LORD, and
The saints will be
caught up to the third heaven,
“But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world,
and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:”
(
The new heaven and the new earth will be created by God for all of
his resurrected saints (both Jew and Gentile) and they will descend to this new
earth in the
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the
holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:1-2 AV)
If the Church are exclusively God’s heavenly people, and
When tested by the Sadducees, the Lord used scripture
to prove the resurrection from the dead. He declared that
“But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read
that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living.” (
I can’t explain how this is possible, seeing that the
Lord was not the firstborn from the dead until fifteen hundred years later. Yet
there it is in scripture and God cannot lie. Clearly we will have to throw out
our linear concept of time when we are resurrected.
The resurrection of the dead is also
“But when
Therefore any of
“There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and
you yourselves thrust out.” (
We have already established that
So the Gentile saints will enter the same realm as all
of the resurrected saints of
“But ye are come unto
And the
Jewish saints of the present church of the mystery have exactly the same hope
as the Gentile saints. Christ is NOT DIVIDED (1 Corinthians
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you,” (1 Peter
1:3-4 AV)
One
problem remains. According to Ezekiel’s prophecy there will be a mass
resurrection of ‘these slain’ of
“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the
spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full
of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about:
and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very
dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O
Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and
say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord
GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye
shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you,
and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall
know that I am the LORD. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I
prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came
together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh
came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in
them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and
say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain, that
they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into
them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of
The term ‘whole house of
This resurrected ‘whole house of
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at
the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:” (Job
The ‘latter day’ of these events must be prior to
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection:
on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of
This resurrection to a fleshy, earthy body seems to be
a total contradiction to the Lord’s declaration that the resurrected become as
the angels which are in heaven.
“For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor
are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.” (Mark
And if
“But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read
that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living.” (
The prophets
“There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the
prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” (
I think the answer is that those of the first
resurrection will spend 1000 years on earth PRIOR to their ascension and
becoming ‘as the angels’ by being clothed upon with an
house which is from heaven. This is not a contradiction to the Lord’s teaching
on resurrection – just a prolongation of the period of time that they walk the
earth after their resurrection and prior to their ascension.
“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and
see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (
“To whom also he shewed
himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them
forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:” (Acts
1:3 AV)
Most mid-Acts teachers leave the Church out of
“Do ye not know that the
saints shall judge the world? and if the world
shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?” (1
Corinthians 6:2 AV)
The saints of the Church will be judging the world at
the same time that the Lord’s Jewish saints will be judging
“And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the
Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
So even during
The Church are not
exclusively God’s heavenly people. We are attracted to the idea of populating
other planets in the physical heaven and leaving the earth to
The saints will be resurrected to the third heaven,
the same realm that those of
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”
(Colossians 3:1 AV)