CHAPTER 16 FROM NOW ON UNTIL JESUS CHRIST REAPPEARS

The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God – those excluded
Last Days
On the Lord’s Reappearance
Be patient while waiting for the Lord’s Reappearance
Judgment of the Wealthy
Christ’s Reappearance
The Lord’s Reappearance with Judgment
The Lord’s Reappearance
The Last Times – towards the End
The Last Days
False Teachers
False Teachers and how to identify them
False Teachers
The Lord’s Reappearance and the Antichrist
The Antichrist
The Last Days – Judgment
The Last Days
God, the Just Judge of all the entire world
Resurrection and the Glory later on
Rising from the dead, judgment and the new bodies in Heaven
A place of rest for the people of God
Worship on earth and in Heaven
The book of the Revelation in Outline

The Kingdom of God
(Paul)
1 CORINTHIANS 4:20
The Kingdom of God is not just talking; it is living by God’s power.

The Kingdom of God – those excluded
(Paul)
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-10
Those who live immoral lives – who are idol worshippers, adulterers or homosexuals – will have no share in his kingdom. Neither will thieves or greedy people, drunkards, slanderers, or robbers.

Last Days
(Paul)
1 THESSALONIANS 1:10
(adapted)
We look forward to the return (the reappearance) of God’s Son from heaven – Jesus, whom God brought back to life – and he is our only Savior from God’s terrible anger against sin (against disobedience by us of God’s laws).

On the Lord’s Reappearance
(Paul)
1 CORINTHIANS 4:5
So be careful not to jump to conclusions before the Lord returns as to whether someone is a good servant or not. When the Lord comes, he will turn on the light so that everyone can see exactly what each one of us is really like, deep down in our hearts. Then everyone will know why we have been doing the Lord’s work. At that time God will give to each one whatever praise is coming to him.

Be patient while waiting for the Lord’s Reappearance
JAMES 5:7-11
Now as for you, dear brothers, who are waiting for the Lord’s return, be patient, like a farmer who waits until the autumn for his precious harvest to ripen. Yes, be patient. And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.
Don’t grumble about each other, brothers. Are you yourselves above criticism? For see! The great Judge is coming. He is almost here [- let him do whatever criticizing must be done].
For examples of patience in suffering, look at the Lord’s prophets. We know how happy they are now because they stayed true to him then, even though they suffered greatly for it. Job is an example of a man who continued to trust the Lord in sorrow; from his experiences we can see how the Lord’s plan finally ended in good, for he is full of tenderness and mercy.

Judgment of the Wealthy
JAMES 5:1-6
Look here, you rich men, now is the time to cry and groan with anguished grief because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is even now rotting away, and your fine clothes are becoming mere moth-eaten rags. The value of your gold and silver is dropping fast, yet it will stand as evidence against you, and eat your flesh like fire. That is what you have stored up for yourselves, to receive on that coming day of judgment. For listen! Hear the cries of the workers whom you have cheated of their pay. Their cries have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
You have spent your years here on earth having fun, satisfying your every whim (every fancy, every sudden desire and change of mind), and now your fat hearts are ready for the slaughter. You have condemned and killed good men who had no power to defend themselves against you.

Christ’s Reappearance
(Paul)
1 TIMOTHY 6:15-16
For in due season Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only Almighty God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone can never die, who lives in light so terrible that no human being can approach him. No mere man has ever seen him, nor ever will. Unto him be honor and everlasting power and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

The Lord’s Reappearance with Judgment
(Paul)
2 THESSALONIANS 1:5-10
This is only one example of the fair, just way God does things, for he is using your sufferings to make you ready for his kingdom, while at the same time he is preparing judgment and punishment for those who are hurting you.
And so I would say to you who are suffering, God will give you rest along with us when the Lord Jesus appears suddenly from heaven in flaming fire with his mighty angels, bringing judgment on those who do not wish to know God, and who refuse to accept his plan to save them through our Lord Jesus Christ.
They will be punished in everlasting hell, forever separated from the face of the Lord, never to see the glory of his power when he comes to receive praise and admiration because of all he has done for his people, his saints. And you will be with him, because you have believed God’s word which we gave you.

The Lord’s Reappearance
(Paul)
1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18 and 5:1-11
And now, dear brothers, I want you to know what happens to a Christian when he dies, so that when it happens, you will not be full of sorrow, as those are who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and then came back to life again, we can also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him all the Christians who have died.
I can tell you this, directly from the Lord: that we who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a mighty shout and with the soul-stirring cry of the archangel and the great trumpet-call of God. And the Christians who are dead will be the first to rise to meet the Lord. Then we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. So comfort and encourage each other with this news.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-11
When is all this going to happen? I really don’t need to say anything about that, dear brothers, for you know perfectly well that no one knows. That day of the Lord will come unexpectedly like a thief in the night. When people are saying, “All is well, everything is quiet and peaceful” – then, all of a sudden, disaster will fall upon them as suddenly as a woman’s birth pains begin when her child is born. And these people will not be able to get away anywhere – there will be no place to hide.
But dear brothers, you are not in the dark about these things, and you won’t be surprised as by a thief when that day of the Lord comes. For you are all children of the light and the day, and do not belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Watch for his return and stay sober. Night is the time for sleep and the time when people get drunk. But let us who live in the light keep sober, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the happy hope of salvation.
For God has not chosen to pour out his anger upon us, but to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that we can live with him for ever, whether we are dead or alive at the time of his return. So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

The Last Times – towards the End
(Paul)
1 TIMOTHY 4:1-6
But the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some in the church will turn away from Christ and become eager followers of teachers with devil-inspired ideas. These teachers will tell lies with straight faces and do it so often that their consciences won’t even bother them. They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat meat, even though God gave these things to well-taught Christians to enjoy and be thankful for. For everything God made is good, and we may eat it gladly if we are thankful for it, and if we ask God to bless it, for it is made good by the Word of God and prayer.
If you explain this to the others you will be doing your duty as a worthy minister, who is fed by faith and by the true teaching you have followed.

The Last Days
(Paul)
2 TIMOTHY 3:1-9
You may as well know this too, Timothy, that in the last days it is going to be very difficult to be a Christian. For people will love only themselves and their money; they will be proud and boastful, sneering at God (by laughing, speaking or writing with scorn, contempt and ridicule), disobedient to their parents, ungrateful to them, and thoroughly bad. They will be hard-hearted and never give in to others; they will be constant liars and troublemakers and will think nothing of immorality. They will be rough and cruel, and sneer at those who try to be good. They will betray their friends; they will be hotheaded, puffed up with pride, and prefer pleasure to worshipping God. They will go to church, yes, but they won’t really believe anything they hear. Don’t be taken in by people like that.
They are the kind who craftily sneak into other people’s homes and make friendships with silly (foolish), sin-burdened women and teach them their new doctrines, (their new teachings). Women of that kind are forever following new teachers, but they never understand the truth. And these teachers fight the truth …They have dirty minds, warped (and perverted) twisted (and dishonest), and have turned against the Christian faith.
But they won’t get away with all this for ever. Some day their deceit (their pretence) will be known to everyone…

False Teachers
2 PETER 2:1-22
But there were false prophets, too, in those days, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly tell their lies about God, turning against even their Master who bought them; but theirs will be a swift and terrible end. Many will follow their evil teaching that there is nothing wrong with sexual sin (adultery, fornication and indecency). And because of them Christ and his way will be scoffed at (and ridiculed).
These teachers in their greed will tell you anything to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago and their destruction is on the way. For God did not spare even the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell (the home of the damned) chained in gloomy caves and darkness until the judgment day. And he did not spare any of the people who lived in ancient times before the flood except Noah, the one man who spoke up for God, and his family of seven. At that time God completely destroyed the whole world of ungodly men with the vast flood. Later, he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into heaps of ashes and blotted them off the face of the earth, making them an example for all the ungodly (people) in the future to look back upon and fear.
But at the same time the Lord rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a good man, sick of the terrible wickedness he saw everywhere around him day after day. So also the Lord can rescue you and me from the temptations (the attractions and enticements to think, speak or do evil that is any wrong doing) that surround us, and continue to punish the ungodly (people) until the day of final judgment comes.
He is especially hard on those who follow their own evil, lustful thoughts, and those who are proud and willful, daring even to scoff at (and ridicule) the Glorious Ones (above) without so much as trembling, although the angels in heaven who stand in the very presence of the Lord, and are far greater in power and strength than these false teachers, never speak out disrespectfully against these evil Mighty Ones (below).
But false teachers are fools – no better than animals. They do whatever they feel like; born only to be caught and killed, they laugh at the terrifying powers of the underworld which they know so little about; and they will be destroyed along with all the demons and powers of hell (the home of the damned).
That is the pay these teachers will have for their sin (their thoughts, speech and actions against the laws of God). For they live in evil pleasures day after day. They are a disgrace and a stain (a blemish) among you, deceiving you by living in foul sin on the side while they join your love feasts as though they were honest men. No women can escape their sinful stare, and of adultery they never have enough. They make a game of luring unstable women. They train themselves to be greedy; and are doomed and cursed (consigned to harm and misery). They have gone off the road and become lost like Balaam, the son of Beor, who fell in love with the money he could make by doing wrong; but Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey spoke to him with a human voice, scolding and rebuking him.
These men are as useless as dried-up springs of water, promising much and delivering nothing; they are as unstable as clouds driven by the storm winds. They are doomed to the eternal pits of darkness. They proudly boast about their sins and conquests, and, using lust as their bait, they lure back into sin those who have just escaped from such wicked living.
‘You aren’t saved by being good,” they say, “so you might as well be bad. Do what you like, be free.”
But these very teachers who offer this “freedom” from law are themselves slaves to sin and destruction. For a man is a slave to whatever controls him. And when a person has escaped from the wicked ways of the world by learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then gets tangled up with sin and becomes its slave again, he is worse off than he was before. It would be better if he had never known about Christ at all than to learn of him and then afterwards turn his back on the holy commandments that were given to him. There is an old saying that “A dog comes back to what he has vomited, and a pig is washed only to come back and wallow in the mud again.” That is the way it is with those who turn again to their sin (and disobey God’s Laws).

JUDE 1:3-7
Dearly loved friends, I had been planning to write to you some thoughts about the salvation God has given us, but now I find I must write of something else instead, urging you to defend stoutly (bravely and determinedly) the truth which God gave, once for all, to his people to keep without change through the years. I say this because some godless teachers have wormed their way in among you, saying after we become Christians we can do just as we like without fear of God’s punishment. The fate of such people was written long ago, for they have turned against our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
My answer to them is: remember this fact – which you know already – that the Lord saved a whole nation of people out of the land of Egypt, and then killed every one of them who did not trust and obey him. And I remind you of those angels who were once pure and holy, but willingly turned to a life of sin (in disobeying God’s Laws). Now God has them chained up in prisons of darkness, waiting for the judgment day. And don’t forget the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, all full of lust of every kind (strong sexual desire) including lust of men for other men. These cities were destroyed by fire and continue to be a warning to us that there is a hell (the home of the damned) in which sinners are punished.
(A Note regarding “LUST”:
MATTHEW 5:28
Jesus said, “The laws of Moses said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say: Anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
LUKE 17:1-3
Jesus said, “There will always be temptations to sin (attractions and enticements to think, speak and do evil, that is, any wrong doing in disobedience of God’s Laws), but woe (distress, sorrow and suffering) to the man who does the tempting. If he were thrown into the sea with a huge rock tied to his neck, he would be far better off than facing the punishment in store for those who harm little children. I am warning you!”
Some synonyms for “LUST”: (A synonym is a word or phrase that means the same as another word or phrase in the same language.)
Lasciviousness – feeling or revealing an overt (done or shown openly) or offensive sexual desire.
Lecherous – having or showing excessive or offensive sexual desire.
Lewd – crude (coarse or rude) and offensive in a sexual way.
Libidinous – having or showing excessive sexual drive.
Licentious – promiscuous (many passing sexual relationships) and unprincipled (not acting in accordance with moral principles) in sexual matters.
Prurient – having or encouraging as excessive interest in sexual matters.
Sensual – arousing sexual or other physical gratification. (Relating to the physical senses through sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch).
Unchaste – relating to or engaging in sexual activity especially of an illicit (forbidden by law, rules or custom) or extramarital nature (that is occurring outside marriage).
An Antonym, a word opposite in meaning, for “lust” is “virtue”, that is behavior showing high moral standards.)

JUDE 1:8-13
Yet these false teachers go on living their evil, immoral lives, degrading their bodies and laughing at those in authority over them, even scoffing at the glorious ones [those mighty powers of awful evil who left their first estate]. Yet Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, when he was arguing with Satan about Moses’ body did not dare to accuse Satan, or jeer at him, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you.” But these men mock and curse at anything they do not understand, and, like the animals, they do whatever they feel like, thereby ruining their souls.
Woe (distress, sorrow and suffering) upon them! For they follow the example of Cain who killed his brother; and, like Balaam, they will do anything for money; and, like Korah, they have disobeyed God in the hope of gain and will die under his curse.
(Notes: Cain was the eldest son of Adam and Eve who killed his brother Abel. [Genesis 4 Old Testament] Balaam was a prophet called on by Balak to curse the Israelites. [Numbers 22:5-24:25 O.T.] Korah was a Levite who with Dathan and Abiram conspired against Moses and Aaron. [Numbers 16 O.T.].)
When these men join you at the love feasts of the church, they are evil blemishes among you, laughing and carrying on, gorging and stuffing themselves without a thought for others. They are like clouds blowing over dry land without giving rain, promising much, but producing nothing. They are like fruit trees without any fruit at harvest time. They are not only dead, but doubly dead, for they have been pulled out, roots and all, to be burned.
All they leave behind them is shame and disgrace, like the dirty foam along the beach left by the wild waves. They wander around looking as bright as stars, but ahead of them is the everlasting gloom and darkness that God has prepared for them.

False Teachers and how to identify them
1 JOHN 4:1-6
Dearly loved friends, don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is. For there are many false teachers around, and the way to find out if their message is from the Holy Spirit is to ask: does it really agree that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, actually became man with a human body? If so, then the message is from God. If not, the message is not from God but from one who is against Christ, like the “Antichrist” you have heard about who is going to come, and his attitude of enmity (hostility) against Christ is already abroad in the world.
Dear friends, you belong to God and have already won your fight with those who are against Christ, because there is someone in your hearts who is stronger than any evil teacher in this wicked world. These men belong to this world, so, quite naturally, they are concerned about worldly affairs and the world pays attention to them. But we are children of God; that is why only those who have walked and talked with God will listen to us. Others won’t. That is another way to know whether a message is really from God; for if it is, the world won’t listen to it.

False Teachers
2 JOHN 1:7-11
Watch out for the false leaders – and there are many of them around – who don’t believe that Jesus Christ came to earth as a human being with a body like ours. Such people are against the truth and against Christ. Beware of being like them, and losing the prize that you and I have been working so hard to get. See to it that you win your full reward from the Lord. For if you wander beyond the teaching of Christ, you will leave God behind; while if you are loyal to Christ’s teachings, you will have God too. Then you will have both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to teach you, and he doesn’t believe what Christ taught, don’t even invite him into your home. Don’t encourage him in any way. If you do you will be a partner with him in his wickedness.

The Lord’s Reappearance and the Antichrist
(Paul)
2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-12
And now, what about the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our being gathered together to meet him? Please don’t be upset and excited, dear brothers, by the rumor that this day of the Lord has already begun. If you hear of people having visions and special messages from God about this, or letters that are supposed to have come from me, don’t believe them. Don’t be carried away and deceived, regardless of what they say.
For that day will not come until two things happen: first, there will be a time of great rebellion against God, and then the man of rebellion will come – the son of hell. He will defy every god there is, and tear down every other object of adoration and worship. He will go in and sit as God in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God. Don’t you remember that I told you this when I was with you? And you know who is keeping him from being here already; for he can come only when his time is ready.
As for the work this man of rebellion (organized, open resistance to God) and hell (the home of the damned) will do when he comes, it is already going on, but he himself will not come until the one who is holding him back steps out of the way. Then this wicked one will appear, whom the Lord Jesus will burn up with the breath of his mouth and destroy by his presence when he returns. This man of sin (disobeying God’s Laws) will come as Satan’s tool, full of Satanic (Evil) power, and will trick everyone with strange demonstrations, and will pretend to do great miracles. He will completely fool those who are on their way to hell because they have said “no” to the truth; they have refused to believe it and love it, and let it save them, so God will allow them to believe lies with all their heart, and all of them will be justly judged for believing falsehood, refusing the truth, and enjoying their sins (their disobedience of God’s Laws).

The Antichrist
1 JOHN 2:18-29
Dear children, this world’s last hour has come. You have heard about the Antichrist who is coming – the one who is against Christ – and already many such persons have appeared. This makes us all the more certain that the end of the world is near. These “against Christ” people used to be members of our churches, but they never really belonged to us or else they would have stayed. When they left us it proved that they were not of us at all.
But you are not like that, for the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you know the truth. So I am not writing to you as to those who need to know the truth, but I warn you as those who can discern the difference between true and false.
And who is the greatest liar? The one who says that Jesus is not Christ. Such a person is antichrist, for he does not believe in God the Father and in his Son. For a person who doesn’t believe in Christ, God’s Son, can’t have God the Father either. But he who has Christ, God’s Son, has God the Father also.
So keep on believing what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will always be in close fellowship with both God the Father and his Son. And he himself has promised us this: eternal life.
These remarks of mine about the Antichrist are pointed at those who would dearly love to blindfold you and lead you astray. But you have received the Holy Spirit and he lives within you, in your hearts, so that you don’t need anyone to teach you what is right. For he teaches you all things, and he is the truth, and no liar; and so, just as he has said, you must live in Christ, never to depart from him.
And now, my little children, stay in happy fellowship with the Lord so that when he comes you will be sure that all is well, and will not have to be ashamed and shrink back from meeting him. Since we know that God is always good and does only right, we may rightly assume that all those who do right are his children.

The Last Days – Judgment
JUDE 1:14-23
Enoch, who lived long ago, soon after Adam, knew about these (evil) men and said this about them: “See, the Lord is coming with millions of his holy ones. He will bring the people of the world before him in judgment, to receive just punishment, and to prove the terrible things they have done in rebellion against God, revealing all they have said against him.” These men are constant moaners, never satisfied, doing whatever evil they feel like; they are loud-mouthed “show-offs,” and when they show respect for others, it is only to get something from them in return.
Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told you, that in the last times there would come these scoffers (those who ridicule) whose whole purpose in life is to enjoy themselves in every evil way imaginable. They stir up arguments; they love the evil things of the world; they do not have the Holy Spirit living in them.
But you, dear friends, must build up your lives ever more strongly upon the foundation of our holy faith, learning to pray in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit.
Stay always within the boundaries where God’s love can reach and bless you. Wait patiently for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you. Try to help those who argue against you. Be merciful to those who doubt. Save some by snatching them as from the very flames of hell itself. And as for others, help them to find the Lord by being kind to them, but be careful that you yourselves aren’t pulled along into their sins (by disobeying God’s Laws). Hate every trace of their sin while being merciful to them as sinners.

The Last Days
2 PETER 3:1-18
This is my second letter to you, dear brothers, and in both of them I have tried to remind you – if you will let me – about facts you already know: facts you learned from the holy prophets and from us apostles who brought you the words of our Lord and Savior.
First, I want to remind you that in the last days there will come scoffers (those who ridicule) who will do everything wrong they can think of, and laugh at the truth. This will be their line of argument: “So Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? He’ll never come! Why, as far back as anyone can remember everything has remained exactly as it was since the first day of creation.”
They deliberately forget this fact: that God did destroy the world with a mighty flood, long after he made the heavens by the word of his command, and had used the waters to form the earth and surround it. And God has commanded that the earth and the heavens be stored away for a great bonfire at the judgment day, when all ungodly (evil) men will perish.
But don’t forget this, dear friends, that a day or a thousand years from now is like tomorrow to the Lord. He isn’t really being slow about his promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way. But he is waiting, for the good reason that he is not willing that any (person) should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners (those disobeying God’s Laws) to repent (to turn around and face God and obey him instead). The day of the Lord is surely coming, as unexpectedly as a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise and the heavenly bodies will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be burned up.
An so since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives we should be living. You should look forward to that day and hurry it along – the day when God will set the heavens on fire, and the heavenly bodies will melt and disappear in flames. But we are looking forward to God’s promise of new heavens and a new earth afterwards, where there will be only goodness.
Dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen and for him to come, try hard to live without sinning (by obeying God’s Laws); and be at peace with everyone so that he will be pleased with you when he returns.
And remember why he is waiting. He is giving us time to get his message of salvation out to others. Our wise and beloved brother Paul has talked about these same things in many of his letters. Some of his comments are not easy to understand, and there are people who are deliberately stupid (ignorant), and always demand some unusual interpretation – they have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of the Scriptures – and the result is disaster for them.
I am warning you in advance, dear brothers, so that you can watch out and not be carried away by the mistakes of these wicked men, lest you yourselves become mixed up too. But grow in spiritual strength and become better acquainted with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be all glory and splendid honor, both now and for evermore.

God, the Just Judge of all the entire world
(Paul)
ROMANS 2:1-16
“Well,” you may be saying, “what terrible people you have been talking about!” But wait a minute! You are just as bad. When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are talking about yourselves, for you do these very same things. And we know that God, in justice, will punish anyone who does such things as these. Do you think that God will judge and condemn others for doing them and overlook you when you do them, too? Don’t you realize how patient he is being with you? Or don’t you care? Can’t you see that he has been waiting all this time without punishing you; to give you time to turn from your sin (your disobedience of God’s Laws)? His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance (to turning around, facing God and obeying him instead).
But no, you won’t listen; and so you are saving up terrible punishment for yourselves because of your stubbornness in refusing to turn from your sin (your disobedience of God’s Laws); for there is going to come a day of wrath (a day of extreme anger) when God will be the just Judge of all the (people) of the world. He will give each one whatever his (or her) deeds deserve. He will give eternal life to those who patiently do the will of God, seeking for the unseen glory and honor and eternal life that he offers. But he will terribly punish those who fight against the truth of God and walk in evil ways – God’s anger will be poured out upon them. There will be sorrow and suffering for Jews and Gentiles alike who keep on sinning (breaking God’s Laws), but there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who obey him, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. For God treats everyone the same.
He will punish sin (disobedience of God’s Laws) wherever it is found. He will punish the heathen when they sin, even though they never had God’s written laws, for down in their hearts they know right from wrong. God’s laws are written within them; their own conscience accuses them, or sometimes excuses them. And God will punish the Jews for sinning because they have his written laws, but don’t obey them. They know what is right but don’t do it. After all, salvation is not given to those who know what to do, unless they do it. The day will surely come when at God’s command Jesus Christ will judge the secret life of everyone, their inmost thoughts and motives (factors which make a person act in a particular way); this is all part of God’s great plan which I proclaim.

Resurrection and the Glory later on
(Paul)
ROMANS 8:18-23
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. For all creation is waiting patiently and hopefully for that future day when God will resurrect (restore to life) his children. On that day thorns and thistles, sin (disobedience of God’s Laws), death (the destruction of life) and decay (waste away, perish) – the things that overcame the world against its will at God’s command – will all disappear, and the world around us will share in the glorious freedom from sin which God’s children enjoy.
For we know that even the things of nature, like animals and plants, suffer in sickness and death, but these are “labor pains” as they await this great event. And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously (eagerly, watchfully) for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us – bodies that will never be sick and will never die.

Rising from the dead, judgment and the new bodies in Heaven
(Paul)
2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-10
For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down – when we die and leave these bodies – we will have wonderful new bodies in heaven, homes that will be ours for evermore, made for us by God himself, and not by human hands. How weary we grow of our present bodies. That is why we look forward eagerly to the day when we shall have heavenly bodies which we shall put on like new clothes. For we shall not be merely spirits without bodies. These earthly bodies make us groan and sigh, but we wouldn’t like to think of dying and having no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will, as it were, be swallowed up by everlasting life. This is what God has prepared for us and, as a guarantee; he has given us his Holy Spirit.
Now we look forward with confidence to our heavenly bodies, realizing that at every moment we spend in these earthly bodies is time spent away from our eternal home in heaven with Jesus. We know these things are true by believing, not by seeing. And we are not afraid, but are quite content to die, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So our aim is to please him always in everything we do, whether we are here in this body or away from this body and with him in heaven. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged and have our lives laid bare before him. Each of us will receive whatever he deserves for the good or bad things he has done in his earthly body.

A place of rest for the people of God
HEBREWS 4:1-13
Although God’s promise still stands – his promise that all may enter his place of rest – we ought to tremble with fear because some of you may be on the verge (the edge) of failing to get there after all. For this wonderful news – the message that God wants to save us – has been given to us just as it was to those who lived in the time of Moses. But it didn’t do them any good because they didn’t believe it. They didn’t mix it with faith. For only we who believe God can enter into his place of rest. He has said, “I have sworn in my anger that those who don’t believe me will never get in,” even though he has been ready and waiting for them since the world began.
We know he is ready and waiting because it is written that God rested on the seventh day of creation, having finished all that he had planned to make.
Even so they didn’t get in, for God finally said, “They shall never enter my rest.” Yet the promise remains and some get in – but not those who had the first chance, for they disobeyed God and failed to enter.
But he has set another time for coming in, and that time is now. He announced this through King David long years after man’s first failure to enter, saying in the words already quoted, “Today when you hear him calling, do not harden your hearts against him (do not stubbornly or willfully reject God’s formal invitation).”
This new place of rest he is talking about does not mean the land of Israel that Joshua led them into. If that were what God meant, he would not have spoken long afterwards about “today” being the time to get in. So there is a full, complete rest still waiting for the people of God. Christ has already entered there. He is resting from his work, just as God did after the creation. Let us do our best to go into that place of rest, too, being careful not to disobey God as the children of Israel did, thus failing to get in.
For whatever God says to us is full of living power: it is sharper than the sharpest dagger (a short knife) cutting swift and deep into every aspect of our innermost thoughts and desires, exposing us for what we really are. He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from him to whom we must explain all that we have done.

Worship on earth and in Heaven
HEBREWS 9:1-28
Now in that first agreement between God and his people there were rules for worship and there was a sacred tent down here on earth. Inside this place of worship there were two rooms. The first one contained the golden candlestick and a table with special loaves of holy bread upon it; this part was called the Holy Place. Then there was a curtain and behind the curtain was a room called the Holy of Holies. In that room there were a golden incense-altar and the golden chest, called the Ark of the Covenant, completely covered on all sides with pure gold. Inside the ark were the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments written on them, and a golden jar with some manna in it, and Aaron’s wooden cane that budded. Above the golden chest were statues of angels called the cherubim – the guardians of God’s glory – with their wings stretched out over the ark’s golden cover, called the mercy seat. But enough of such details.
When all was ready the priests went in and out of the first room whenever they wanted to, doing their work. But only the high priest went into the inner room, and then only once a year, all alone, and always with blood which he sprinkled on the mercy seat as an offering to God to cover his own mistakes and sins, and the mistakes and sins of all the people.
And the Holy Spirit uses all this to point out to us that under the old system the common people could not go into the Holy of Holies as long as the outer room and the entire system it represents were still in use.
This has an important lesson for us today. For under the old system, gifts and sacrifices were offered, but these failed to cleanse the hearts of the people who brought them. For the old system dealt only with certain rituals – what foods to eat and drink, rules for washing themselves, and rules about this and that. The people had to keep these rules to tide them over until Christ came with God’s new and better way.
He came as High Priest of this better system which we now have. He went into that greater, perfect tabernacle in heaven, not made by men nor part of this world, and once for all took blood into that inner room, the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled it on the mercy seat; but it was not the blood of goats and carves. No, he took his own blood, and with it he, by himself, made sure of our salvation.
And if under the old system the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of young cows could cleanse men’s bodies from sin, just think how much more surely the blood of Christ will transform our lives and hearts. His sacrifice frees us from the worry of having to obey the old rules, and makes us want to serve the living God. For by the help of the eternal Holy Spirit, Christ willingly gave himself to God to die for our sins – he being perfect, without a single sin or fault. Christ came with this new agreement so that all who are invited may come and have forever all the wonders God has promised them. For Christ died to rescue them from the penalty of the sins they had committed while still under that old system.
Now, if someone dies and leaves a will – a list of things to be given away to certain people when he dies – no one gets anything until it is proved that the person who wrote the will is dead. The will goes into effect only after the death of the person who wrote it. While he is still alive no one can use it to get any of those things he has promised them.

That is why blood was sprinkled [as proof of Christ’s death] before even the first agreement could go into effect. For after Moses had given the people all of God’s laws, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, and sprinkled the blood over the book of God’s laws and over all the people, using branches of hyssop bushes and scarlet wool to sprinkle with. Then he said, “This is the blood that marks the beginning of the agreement between you and God, the agreement God commanded me to make with you.” And in the same way he sprinkled blood on the sacred tent and on whatever instruments were used for worship. In fact we can say that under the old agreement almost everything was cleansed by sprinkling it with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (no forgiveness of thoughts, speech and actions against the laws of God).
That is why the sacred tent down here on earth, and everything in it – all copied from things in heaven – all had to be made pure by Moses in this way, by being sprinkled with the blood of animals. But the real things in heaven, of which these down here are copies, were made pure with far more precious offerings.
For Christ has entered into heaven itself, to appear now before God as our friend. It was not in the earthly place of worship that he did this, for that was merely a copy of the real temple in heaven. Nor has he offered himself again and again, as the high priest down here on earth offers animal blood in the Holy of Holies each year. If that had been necessary, then he would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came once for all, at the end of the age, to put away the power of sin forever by dying for us.
And just as it is destined that men die only once, and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died only once as an offering for the sins of many people; and he will come again, but not to deal again with our sins. This time he will come bringing salvation to all those who are eagerly and patiently waiting for him.

The Book of the Revelation in Outline
The Revelation of Saint John is the last book in the New Testament of the Bible. It sets out in detail a divine disclosure given to Saint John on the Island of Patmos off the coast of modern Turkey. It begins, “This book unveils some of the future activities soon to occur in the life of Jesus Christ. God permitted him to reveal these things to his servant John in a vision; and then an angel was sent from heaven to explain the vision’s meaning. John wrote it all down – the words of God and Jesus Christ and everything he heard and saw”.
The Revelation of Saint John may be accessed in full on the Internet in one’s own language. For example: http:www.biblegateway.com
The Outline which follows is a general introduction to the Chapters and Headings in “The Revelation”.

Jesus Christ – Coming Again – The Last Days
REVELATION 1:1-8 PROLOGUE
Jesus Christ, the First and the Last
REVELATION 1:9-20 VISION OF THE SON OF MAN
Loving God
REVELATION 2:1-7 THE LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES
Suffering
REVELATION 2:8-11
Repentance
REVELATION 2:12-17
Repentance
REVELATION 2:18-29
Repentance
REVELATION 3:1-6
Obedience
REVELATION 3:7-13
Repentance
REVELATION 3:14-22
Heaven and Worship
REVELATION 4:1-11 THE VISION OF HEAVEN
Jesus, the Lamb who was slain
REVELATION 5:1-14
The Six Seals – The End Times
REVELATION 6:1-17 THE SEVEN SEALS
The End Times – Salvation from God
REVELATION 7:1-17
Judgment
REVELATION 8:1-13 FROM VERSE 6 –THE SEVEN TRUMPETS
Judgment
REVELATION 9:1-21
The Angel with the Scroll from Heaven
REVELATION 10:1-11
Judgment
REVELATION 11:1-19
Satan thrown down
REVELATION 12:1-17 THE BACKGROUND OF THE EARTHLY CONFLICT
The Evil Creature’s Mark
REVELATION 13:1-18
Christ’s Blameless Followers
REVELATION 14:1-20
The Seven Last Plagues
REVELATION 15:1-8 THE SEVEN BOWLS
God’s Punishment upon the Earth
REVELATION 16:1-21
The Woman in Scarlet
REVELATION 17:1-18 THE FALL OF BABYLON
The Downfall of Babylon
REVELATION 18:1-24
The Lamb’s Wedding Feast
REVELATION 19:1-21
The Great White Throne
REVELATION 20:1-15 THE CONSUMMATED KINGDOM
The New Jerusalem
REVELATION 21:1-27
Jesus Christ Coming Soon
REVELATION 22:1-21 FROM VERSE 6 THE EPILOGUE

“He who has said all these things declares: Yes, I am coming soon!”
Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Revelation 22:20-21
Another time when Jesus appeared to them, they asked him, “Lord, are you going to free Israel [from Rome] now and restore us as an independent nation?”
“The Father sets those dates,” Jesus replied, “and they are not for you to know. But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power to preach with great effect to the people in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, about my death and resurrection.”
It was not long afterwards that he was lifted up and disappeared into a cloud, leaving them staring after him. As they were straining their eyes for another glimpse, suddenly two white-robed men were standing there among them, and said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here staring at the sky? Jesus has gone away to heaven, and some day, just as he went, he will return!”
Acts 1:6-11
And now – all glory to him who alone is God, who saves us through Jesus Christ our Lord; yes, splendor and majesty, all power and authority are his from the beginning; his they are and his they evermore shall be. And he is able to keep you from slipping and falling away, and to bring you, sinless and perfect, into his glorious presence with mighty shouts of everlasting joy. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25