The speaker began by saying, if you need a verse about your heavenly home, to prove you’ll be there for eternity, it is 2 Cor 5:1. We will look at that, but let’s back up to get the context of resurrection:
2 Cor 4:14-18 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen:
for the things which are seen are temporal; (our earthly house)
but the things which are not seen are eternal. (our heavenly house)
2 Cor 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Actually, the verse does NOT say that we will live eternally in the heavens (as the speaker said). The word ‘eternal’ describes the KIND of house we have, which, until the resurrection, is stored in the heavens. We have ‘an eternal house’ that is waiting for us in the heavens .... as can be further seen by the next verse:
2 Cor 5:2 For in this (our temporal house) we groan (also see Rom 8:23), earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our (eternal) house which is from heaven:
When Jesus comes FROM heaven (1 Thess 1:10, 4:16-17; 2 Thess 1:10), He will bring ‘our eternal house’ to us, when we meet Him in the air .... and He changes our mortal bodies .... to be eternal, immortal bodies .... like His:
Phil 3:20-21 For our conversation (a commonwealth of citizens) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
The souls of ALL the dead saints in Christ are in heaven (Rev 6:9) ‘unclad’, without a garment of a body .... waiting for the resurrection .... when they will get an eternal body, that is incorruptible. Then, also, saints that are still alive will be clothed immortal:
2 Cor 5:3-9 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4 For we that are in this (temporal) tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed (soul without a body house), but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. (also see 1 Cor 15:49-54)
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (".... to die is gain" Phil 1:21)
9 Wherefore we labour (work is going on in heaven, as well as on earth), that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
The speaker called Christ, in His earthly ministry, "another Jesus" (which is ‘mid-Acts’ doctrine). We sing we are saved by the blood of The Crucified One .... and the SCRIPTURES testify that He was the SAME Jesus -- the risen, glorified Lord -- that God raised and took up to heaven:
Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
He is the SAME Jesus (NOT another Jesus) that Saul (Paul) preached just after his Damascus road encounter with Him:
Acts 9:20-22 And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
21 But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?
22 But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.
The other apostles did not preach ‘another Jesus’ than Paul preached. Paul himself repeatedly made the point clear, there is only ONE TRUE Lord Jesus -- not 2:
Rom 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
1 Cor 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
Eph 4:5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
The speaker said, "We got people preaching they’re in the church in the wilderness. I’m not in that church." Well, that ‘wilderness church’ (Acts 7:38) drank of the SAME Jesus Christ, the Rock, OUR foundation stone (1 Cor 3:11, Eph 2:20):
1 Cor 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
The speaker’s message title was about our greatest treasure, but he didn’t mention that Moses (Heb 11:24-25), the leader of the wilderness church (Acts 7:37), chose the reproach of the SAME Christ over Egypt’s treasures?
Heb 11:26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
The speaker’s topic was supposed to be about treasure, but he made no reference to when ‘another’ Jesus (not really!) spoke to the little flock (also see Acts 20:28-29), whose treasure and heart is in the heavens:
Luke 12:32-34 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33 Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. (also see Matt 5:12, 6:20)
34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The speaker also failed to show where Peter wrote about the eternal inheritance .... stored in heaven .... for those who believe (1 Pet 1:21) in the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet 1:19) and His resurrection (1 Pet 1:21).
If the speaker handled 1 Pet 1:4 the same way he did 2 Cor 5:1, then he would have to say that Peter also wrote of an eternal inheritance in heaven. He sure would not want to say that .... because he makes the eternal inheritance PETER wrote about .... be a DIFFERENT inheritance than PAUL wrote about (Eph 1:3) .... even though BOTH writers said they were IN HEAVEN. ‘Mid-Acts-ers’ DIVIDE everything, but not ‘rightly’ as they claim:
1 Peter 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope (also see Rom 8:24-25) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
The speaker said we are members of the church, the body of Christ, and that is the church today. The church that is called out ‘a new creature’:
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
What about those Jewish saints that were ‘in Christ’ BEFORE Paul?
They were new creatures, too:
Rom 16:7 Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
The speaker read
2 Cor 6:1-2 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
2 (For he saith (Isa 49:8), I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
.... but the speaker did not get the CONNECTION between the GRACE of God AND the PROPHECY of the day of salvation that was LINKED to it from the OLD testament.
This is David Dowell, saying, "Think about it!"
