THE LAST DAY AND THE RESURRECTION!
Josimar Salum
"What do you mean by the expression: 'the last day'?"
"Is there a last day for the resurrection?"
"Will we rise from the dead? And go where?"
“Are we going to go to heaven or are we just going to stay here on Earth as Jehovah's Witnesses believe, convinced that this world will be transformed into a beautiful paradise?”
I must state beforehand that Jehovah's Witnesses are a terrible cult. If they don't believe Jesus is God, that's enough to denounce them as a terrible and destructive cult. You don't have to look far to find all the other false teachings they ardently teach. One of these false teachings is that the Earth will become a paradise.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible talks about the Kingdom of God.
The Bible does not talk about the Church, Earth or even Heaven in the same intensity and frequency as it talks about the Kingdom.
The Gospel is called "the Gospel of the Kingdom".
Jesus the King, the Lord, the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ is the One who came from the Father to transport us from the empire of darkness to His Kingdom of Love.
If you don't see / interpret your entire worldview from the perspective of the Kingdom of God, you will never understand the nature of Jesus' coming …
“So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him." Hebrews 9:28
The second coming should not be called a return, as the Bible says “the coming" explicitly… The expression “the return of Jesus” does not appear in the text of the Bible. The second coming is the fulfillment of God's great plan to make all the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of God and His Christ!
"The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdoms of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15
After coming the second time Jesus will reign not just 1000 years, but forever. Jesus will continue to reign forever as He always has.
“In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." 1 Corinthians 15:52
Jesus promised ! Jesus did not promise heaven ! Jesus promised eternal life and resurrection on the last day !
"For My Father's will is that whoever looks upon the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." John 6:40
“There is a judgment for anyone who rejects Me and does not accept My words; the very Word that I have spoken will condemn him on the last day.” John 12:48
Now watch this:
““In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams." Acts 2:17
There is a distinction between the expressions “the last days” and the “last day".
The last days were inaugurated with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The last days have been going on for about 2,000 years. Every day before Jesus' coming is a last day. The last days are not just about the future. There is a myth that the last days are yet to unfold. This is blatant heresy!
The last days began about 2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost and are ongoing.
When the Bible reports in the book of Revelation a city with streets of gold and other extravagances, it is not referring to a place as we know it today. It can not be! What awaits us cannot be accurately described, for “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and it has not come up to any man's heart”—the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2: 9).
How can you describe something you've never seen other than by a revelation from the Holy Spirit ?
The new creation has nothing to do with the old creation. We are not returning to Eden. It is strange for the Scriptures to teach that we will be returning to Eden.
The Garden of Eden is not part of the New Creation. That's right, it's useless to compare anything of the new creation with what we see today, simply because it's impossible to describe the indescribable !
We can only affirm with complete certainty, according to the Bible, with the Scriptures that:
1. Everything becomes new when Jesus comes.
2. His Kingdom will be fully manifest. He already prepared the Kingdom before the foundation of the universe.
3. We are his Church, the Body of Christ, the “place” where God dwells forever.
In Revelation, it is described as the New Jerusalem. What is described as a city is really the description of the Body of Christ, His Church and not a literal city.
“I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending from heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice coming from the throne and saying, "Now the tabernacle of God is with men, with whom He shall live. They will be His peoples; God Himself will be with them and will be their God.” Revelation 21:2,3
This is the description of the full manifestation of the Kingdom by Spirit.
In our current environment, everything is about physical matters, time and space; so people here talk about places and can only understand visible things that concern the physical world.
The new creation is not about a place or an existential plane, it is not a geographic address. But I understand that it is very difficult for our minds to assimilate this new concept.
God's eternal purpose "for those whom He forefore knew He also predestined (is) to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." Romans 8:29.
Here are some questions: Before God created the heavens and the earth, was He in a place /locating? Does God need a place to be or to be in ?
After the last day, we will be like Jesus is. He and us will be as ONE. God is ONE.
"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as He is." 1 John 3:2
This is so phenomenal and extraordinary that few authors have noticed this new “reality”. I use the word reality for want of another one, but not even the word real or reality appears in the Bible.
Heaven as a place we know will cease to exist and there will be new heavens and a new earth. The big question is not where we are going, but who we are going to be!
“As you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells." 2 Peter 3:12-13
“And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality." 1 Corinthians 15:49-53
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under His dominion, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21
Glory to Jesus from now and forever!
#ASONE
Translated from Brazilian Portuguese by: Filipe S.S. Gouvea
