Some Aspects Of The Church From Its Beginning – The Church’s Home And What Lies Ahead - Part 8 Series

SOME ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH FROM ITS BEGINNING – THE CHURCH’S HOME AND WHAT LIES AHEAD - PART 8

[1]. THE CHURCH’S HOME - INTRODUCTION

Maybe in this next posting in the series I might say some things that are new to you, but just follow along and search out these scriptures. Very little these days is mentioned in churches about the future for Christians except, “We go to heaven to be with the Lord.”

If you ask Christians, what is their home (that is their spiritual home) I suppose most of them will say heaven. Ask them what their eternal home will be and you would probably get the same answer. Is that fully scriptural? I want to share some thoughts with you. Before we begin, I wish to stress that this is my view as I understand the bible, and as it is all future, we can not have full absolute certainty on all these things.

We know that when the Rapture occurs, the Church is taken to heaven, but most of the Church is there already. The Old Testament righteous people are in heaven having been taken there from Paradise with the ascension of the Lord Jesus – {{Ephesians 4:8-10 Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, and He gave gifts to men.” (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.”)}} “Descended into the lower parts of the earth” means his burial, for Jesus went to hell – {{Psalm 16:10 “for You will not abandon MY SOUL TO SHEOL. Neither will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”}}. That is a Messianic Psalm that talks prophetically of the Lord. Sheol (Hebrew) is translated Hell in some other translations.

When Jesus died He went to Paradise with all the righteous souls. At His ascension He took them all home because His sacrifice made it possible for them to enter heaven. This next verse is an interesting one – {{John 3:13 “NO ONE HAS ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man.”}} That was fully true because Enoch and Elijah ascended to Paradise. There was no human being in heaven prior to the ascension. All the dead in Christ for the past 2000 years, the believers of the Church age, go straight to heaven.

[2]. THE JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST

Let me ask a question about the Judgement Seat of Christ – does that happen for a believer immediately he enters heaven, or will all that happen for everyone in the seven years from when the Church is raptured and taken to heaven, before she returns to earth with her Lord at the Second Coming? I think I would conclude that it is a subject we have not really thought about.

All believers will appear before the judgement seat of Christ. I know this frightens some Christians because they will be under the spotlight and that is daunting. It might make us a bit afraid. I have a full article on the Judgement Seat that I don’t think I have yet posted, but today this will be brief. I want you to understand this – the Lord is not sitting on the judgement seat with a rod or a strap in His hand. He sits there lovingly to reward faithful service and want to give out rewards.

When the time happens that the Church is at home in heaven, the Judgement Seat will take place. For all those taken in the Rapture (those who are still living, caught up in the Rapture), they will appear before the Lord at that Judgement Seat (sometimes called the “Bema” by Christians) in the 7 years between the Rapture and the Second Coming, but God being God, all that could happen all together for everyone but appears as separate for each person. What about those who reside in heaven right now, some of them having been there for ages? It is my opinion that when a person enters heaven, then he and she will appear before the Lord. The Lord will fix the not-so-good things in our lives and it seems out of place that people would be waiting in heaven “unfixed”. Without saying any more we will look at this event from scripture.

Firstly we have this verse – {{Romans 14:10 “But you, why do you judge your brother, or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt FOR WE SHALL ALL STAND BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF GOD.”}} That is an indication that our judgement of another Christian is taken into account. It becomes a bit scary, doesn’t it? Most of what we say about the Judgement seat is speculation to some extent except the direct teaching from the word.