Some Untruths

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It is a common saying that the good go to heaven. But the Word says that “the Meek shall inherit the earth.” The hope of Israel was a great kingdom here on the earth. The hope of Job was to live in the new earth.

But the hope of the members of the church of the dispensation of the mystery (the Body of Christ) is to go to a place and position far above heavens to rule over principalities and powers there.

It is also a common notion that the good are saved. But Christ came to save sinners, not good folks. Those who think themselves good are not likely ever to be saved. Those who are saved are sinners saved by grace. No difference how bad a person may have been, if he will but believe as is outlined in John 3:16, he is saved. God is no respecter of persons. He saves “WHOSOEVER”!

It is almost universally believed that bad folks go to hell. But the truth of the matter is that all that die go to hell. There is no exception to that, for even our Lord Himself did not escape it. Hell (Gk. hades. “the grave”) is where believers wait until their resurrection comes.

Our Lord waited 3 days and 3 nights for His resurrection. Most believers will have to wait much longer than that (but ‘unconsciously,’ cf. Eccl. 9:5)

There is also the notion that men have ‘immortal souls’ and therefore keep on living, or at least, will live again. But again, the Word does not say so. In Dan. 12:1 “not all that sleep in the dust of the earth will rise.” In Isa. 26:14 we have some who will never rise.

The same is true of Jer. 51: 39, 57. It says there that they will sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake. The Darby translation of John 3:36 is, “He that believes on the Son has eternal life, and he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.” Many other passages show that the Son will raise those whom He will, those to whom the promise of life is given.

It is very common for men to speak of all the people of the earth as being either the righteous or the wicked, meaning that these are the saved and the unsaved. But there are wicked and slothful servants. Our Lord also said that some of the children of darkness were wiser than the children of light. If I call myself righteous, then I am boasting and have pride, which are wrong.

Some think that heaven is a great city where the streets are paved with gold. But the New Jerusalem, which this describes, is not heaven, but is a city that will be on the earth. We have no description of heaven anywhere in the Word. Since it is a place of spiritual blessings, material words fail.

Oscar M. Baker (1956)