Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
One of the most basic truths of the Bible is subtly opposed even in the church: the teaching of the second coming of Jesus.
Not one "saint" will ever enter heaven except via the "first resurrection" (Rev. 20:5, 6; the Bible does not teach that anyone goes to heaven when he dies; each one who dies "sleeps in Jesus," 1 Thess. 4:14-17). And the resurrection cannot take place until Jesus returns, for only He can raise the dead (John 11:25). Therefore, all the billions who have died believing in Jesus for the past 6000 years are prisoners in their graves, locked therein until He returns!
But Jesus cannot return until His people are ready. As long as there is sin still buried in their hearts, even unconscious sin, they would only "[be consumed] ... by the brightness of His coming" (2 Thessalonians, chapters 1 and 2).
Many say, "I can never get rid of all sin, conscious or unconscious." And thus they oppose the second coming of Jesus. But the Bible makes us uncomfortable, for it plainly declares that God will be successful in preparing a people for Christ's coming; and they will not be a handful of "loners" scattered about in the wilderness. They will be "144,000 ... who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, ... and in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God" (Rev. 14:4, 5).
This coordinated, united, corporate "body" of believers will be the ripened "harvest of the earth" that gives that "angel" the cue to declare, "the time has come for You to reap," and then "the Son of man" is free to come on "a white cloud, ... having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle" (vss. 14-16).
And this? It is denounced and ridiculed as being the heresy of "perfectionism." "Watch, and keep [your] garments," says Revelation 16:15. The Holy Spirit is working night and day right now, worldwide, to accomplish this task, which is ridiculed as "impossible."
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 25, 2002.
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