Here are 2 questions for you to consider:
- Do you really want to be in the Kingdom?
- Do you think you’ll be there?
Surely all of us would answer “Yes” to number 1, but when it comes to number 2 most of us are hesitant to answer yes. This is possibly due to the fact that we are unsure of what God wants of us and we are unsure of what type of person will be in the Kingdom.
The Scriptures give us numerous examples of the qualities we should be striving toward, and the types of people who will be in the Kingdom. One of these is found in Revelation 21, and the verse we will be considering is verse 8, but before we look at that verse, we need to establish the time period to which chapter 21 is referring. Verse 1 of Rev. 21, reads “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.” The word here translated “first,” is the same word translated in verse 4 as “former.” Since the word “first” means “the beginning of an indefinite number,” and “former” means “one that has gone before,” we could get the impression that the time period being spoken of in chapter 21 is at least the 2nd in a series of “heavens.” This is further substantiated by Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:2&4 “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 . . . How that he was caught up into paradise, and “heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” According to the margin of the Oxford Wide Margin Bible, the word “lawful” in verse 4 could be translated “possible.” This gives us the impression that the reason these words were impossible to utter is because they were speaking of something that is impossible for our finite mind to understand — eternity. From this we can assume that this third heaven is the same as the “new heaven in Revelation 21, which is the time after the millennium when the saints will be “all in all” with God. The first and second heavens refer to the present dispensation, and the millennium, respectively.
Who Will Not Be There?
Verse 8 of Revelation 21, therefore, seems to be listing the types of people who will not be in the Kingdom, and though this may be looking at the subject in a negative way, there is much to be learned from this verse: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whore mongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; Which is the second death.”
Fearful—What does it mean to be fearful ? We get an idea what it means from I John 4:17 & 18 “Love has no dread in it. No, love in its fullness drives all dread or fear away for dread has to do with punishment. Anyone who has dread has not reaped the fullness of love.” (Moffatt Translation)
Ask yourself, “Do I love God or am I afraid of Him?” Your answer might be “I love Him, but at the judgement naturally I’ll be afraid.”
If that is our answer, and we are fearful, it’s probably because we don’t feel we’re good enough. But throughout the Bible God tells us that we’re not good enough. No one but Christ has been or ever will be “good enough.”
The person who spends his time contemplating his salvation usually goes through a list of activities such as the following. He begins by asking himself “Am I good enough,” to which the obvious answer is “No.” Therefore he goes through an exercise of trying to do as many good works as he can. But the more he does, the more he realizes the inadequacy of what he’s doing, till he begins to lack confidence in himself and finally becomes fearful. And as John said, if he is fearful, he doesn’t love God. We become afraid, because we don’t feel we’re good enough to be in the Kingdom. But as Jesus says in Luke 12:32; “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” We can overcome our fear if we can realize that there is nothing we can do of ourselves to “earn” a place in the Kingdom, but it will be a result of God’s mercy.
Unbelieving — Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
To Believe God and to Believe in God are Different
To believe God, and to believe in God are two different things. We all believe in God, so as Hebrews puts it, we “believe that He is.” But do we believe God, or as Hebrews says, do we believe” that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him?” Do we believe as Mark says in chapter 16:16 “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved . . .” We say we believe that, but what we really believe is the verse changed to read: ‘He that believeth and is baptized and is good enough shall be saved.” But as already mentioned no one will be “good enough.” If salvation were based on works alone, we may as well forget it, because no one will make it. You might ask, then, about James 2:20 which says “Faith without works is dead.” Isn’t this a contradiction? It isn’t, really, because we are not saying that works aren’t important, because they are important. We can’t expect to be in the Kingdom without works, but just because we have them doesn’t assure us automatically of a place in the Kingdom. To illustrate using a simple example, if you ever go to one of the television studios to watch the taping of a television show, you will notice a warning on your ticket that the studio gives out more tickets than there are seats. This is to insure a full house for the taping. So just because you have a ticket doesn’t assure you of a seat. You still need to get to the studio early and wait in line. Yet you can’t get into the studio without the ticket. So it is with works—you can’t get into the Kingdom without works, but just because you have them doesn’t assure you of a place.
So then, we might ask, “How then can I be saved ?” The answer is, it is God who will save us and not ourselves. No one will be worthy of salvation. Salvation is a gift, through God’s mercy. Works won’t save us, but God’s mercy will. Sometimes we get so involved in thinking about our own personal salvation that we forget the higher goal of God’s will. We can become obsessed much like a student obsessed with grades, to the point that he forgets the higher goal of learning.
If, however, the student is concerned with learning, the grades will show it. And with us, if we are concerned with doing God’s will, a place in the Kingdom will naturally follow. It’s all a matter of perspective.
We Can’t Stop, Sit Back, and Do Nothing
This may sound like we are proposing the idea that all one needs to do is accept Jesus into your heart and be saved. But that’s not what we are saying at all. If we really believe that God can save us, we don’t stop, sit back, and let Him do it. What it should do is cause us to elevate our thinking to God’s level, which is exactly what God wants. Instead of thinking, “If I do enough good things God will give me a place in the Kingdom,” we should be thinking “God has promised me a place in the Kingdom. The least I can do is give Him my whole life now.” “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the son of God.” I John 5:13
Abominable —According to Strong’s’ Concordance, the word abominable means “Stinking, detestable or abhorrent.” These are strong words, and they really make us stop and wonder if we can be abominable.
Luke 16:13-15 tells us how we can be abominable: No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon . . . for which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”
Why were the Pharisees abominable? They tried to serve two masters. This is one of the greatest tests we can face. We can’t adequately serve both God and the flesh, which is what the Pharisees tried. If we try we may please one of the two but not both.
When it comes, though, to trying to decide if we are too involved in trying to serve the flesh, we very often try to justify ourselves by comparing our lives to those around us, either to other churches or to other brethren and sisters in the Truth. But if we do this, we’re using the wrong standard. We should be using Christ’s standard, for anything short of that is abomination in God’s sight.
But is that setting the standard too high? Not really, because we’re not setting the standard, God is. The standard can’t be too high because it was set by God, who knows our capabilities and our shortcomings.
Young People Need High Standards
The same is true in regards to young people. Some, though, would say that the standard for young people should be different, for you can’t expect young people to live up to adult standards. But if a 12 year old can learn things like Latin or Greek or Algebra, who’s to say he can’t understand books like Elpis Israel? Robert Roberts read Elpis Israel at 12 years of age, which just shows it can be done. It also shows us that anyone can do anything they want to do. Anyone can attain to any standard they want. Anybody can turn away from anything they want. It’s all a matter of wanting to badly enough.
We should, and we can if we want, set our goal on Christ’s standards and not our own. This will keep us from becoming an abomination in God’s sight.
Murderers — Of all the categories listed in Rev. 21:8, murderers is probably the one that we all would consider the least likely for us to be a part. But John explains in I John 3:15 “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”
Murder Is Caused By Hatred
John’s point here is not so much concerned with murder, because that is just a symptom of the underlying disease of hatred. You can’t murder someone else unless you hate them.
True, you can kill someone by accident. But you can’t murder someone unless you first hate them, and then premeditated set about to take their life. What John is also dealing with is the fact that we can murder someone without actually taking their life. All we have to do is hate them, and we’ve already committed the act of murder in our heart.
That’s a sobering thought, and it causes us at once to search our conscience to see if in fact we do hate someone. Do we have a personality clash with someone? Do we disagree with someone because they have set up different standards than we feel are right?
Very often we hate someone because we disagree with them on something or other. John Thomas, in Elpis Israel speaks specifically on this point: “No man has any right to set up his own ignorance as the limit of what God has revealed.” What he’s saying is, if we don’t agree with someone, our own level of ignorance causes us to say to ourselves “Since I can’t see this point, I don’t feel you should be able to see it, so therefore you must be wrong.” After a sustained period of disagreement, this can eventually lead to a dislike and even a hatred for that person. And if we hate them, we are a murderer.
The Scribes and Pharisees didn’t agree with Christ, because Christ set up standards which the Pharisees, because of their level of ignorance, couldn’t see. Abel set up a standard which Cain, because of his level of ignorance, couldn’t meet. And in both cases it resulted in murder.
Whore mongers — Whore mongers, or spiritual adulterers, are those who have allowed the truth to become infiltrated by the world, such as by the writings of other churches, humanists, philosophers, etc. What this does is to erode our foundation in the truth and destroys our unity. We can’t maintain unity in the truth if we all have different ideas on the same subject. Unity comes from using the Bible as our guide, and allowing it to make our decision on what is and isn’t truth.
The way to the Kingdom is along the straight and narrow path, within the confines of truth. Anything that is outside of that borders on spiritual adultery.
Sorcerers—Sorcerers are those, such as spoken of by Isaiah in chapter 8:19-20: “Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter . . . if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” These are those wizards who spoke in a way to the pleasing to the flesh. They said what they knew the people wanted to hear.
If We Love … We Must Say Something
Sometimes we must say things that others don’t want to hear, because we are concerned about their well-being, or about their salvation. If we see someone doing something that will endanger themselves either physically or spiritually, if we love them we must say something.
Very often our actions along this line seem very unloving, but as long as our motives are truly concerned with the salvation of the person in question that is all that matters. What we should be careful to remember though, is that we hate actions, and not people. We love people, or should, and hate the actions which they do.
Idolaters — One might think that the only idols left today are in the Catholic Church, but that’s not entirely true. We can have idols, too. According to Webster’s dictionary an idol is “any object of ardent or excessive devotion or admiration.” So with this in mind, it’s easy to see that such innocent things as our homes, jobs, cars, hobbies, and even our families, can be idols if wrongly used. What we must remember is to use moderation with these things and that any excessive devotion or admiration should be directed toward God.
Liars — A liar quite simply is someone who doesn’t speak the truth. But we can be liars by our actions as well as by our words. If we don’t live the truth every moment of our lives we are liars. If we live one life around Christadelphians and another life the rest of the time we are living a lie. We must live the truth as well as speak it, 100% of our lives. If we do that now, we can expect to do it forever.
God Has Given Us His Word
In conclusion then, we must strive to not be part of this list in Rev. 21:8. It’s not as easy as it may sound, but we do have the means whereby to do it. God has given us His Word. If we allow that Word to dwell in us, it can cause us to become God-centered, and not self-centered. It can cause us to be brethren and sister-centered and not self-centered. This is so important, because once we stop worrying about ourself and our own salvation, we can start caring about what we can do for God. We can start caring about what we can do for the Truth and for the members of our ecclesia, and stop worrying about what we can get out of it.
Christ is coming! We should be waiting with love in our hearts, not fear. We should be looking forward to the Kingdom, not just because we might be a part of it, but because God’s glory will be filling the whole earth.
We might say, though, that we’re not ready. We might say, we need time to straighten out our life. But we don’t really need time. We can change in a moment, because it’s our minds that need changing. If we can change our minds, that will automatically change our lives. So it’s not really time that we need to change ourselves, it’s desire. We have to want to change. We just need to set our minds to it, and do it. Because, ready or not, Christ will soon be here. Our hope is that we can be as ready as was John when he stated in Rev. 22:20 “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One