Mike,

In my “daily bread”, usually provided by iswasandwillbe. com, a question concerning my salvation has popped up again. I have a difficult time figuring out whether this wretched sinner will be on this earth long enough to become an “overcomer” and thus be in the “First Resurrection.”
I know it’s all up to God and not me. My question is: doesn’t Christ tells us that none of the “Old Testament” prophets will be in the “First Resurrection”, and if that’s true and I don’t subscribe to any of man’s doctrines (as stubble) which need to be burned up, are they and I the “sheep” at God’s right hand, thus in the “Book of Life”? I understand the rewards of the “First Resurrection” but conclude what’s so terrible about being next to King David or John the Baptist awaiting God’s judgment upon me? I’m not trying to discount my responsibilities, just interested in God’s answer!

Your brother in Christ,
B____

Hi B____,
Thank you for your question.

It is apparent that you have been reading iswasandwillbe. com long enough to know that the fire of the lake of fire is not literal, but is God’s Word in those few who know that word.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

So we are told that “our God is a consuming fire”.

Heb 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.

We are also told that when we see Him, we will be like Him:

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

What does that make us?

Rev 11:3  And I will give [ power] unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred [ and] threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

Anyone who is not in that “blessed and holy first resurrection”, will be in the lake of fire, being purged of anything in them which will furnish fuel for the fire of God’s Words in our mouths. Those who come up in that blessed first resurrection are the ‘fire’ of the lake of fire and it will be through them that all men will come to God and come to know Christ.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Christ was not known by anyone who was before John the baptist, and that includes John.

Mat 11:11  Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Abraham and King David will no doubt need less purifying than most, but they will both have to learn the doctrine of Christ before they will be purified of their Old Testament understanding and come to know God and Jesus whom God has sent.

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

As you say here, God already knows which resurrection you will be in. You are not “responsible” for anything, even though you will “give an accounting… of the deeds done in the body”.

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [ how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

We all sin because of the working of “the law of sin and death” which is working in our members to bring us into bondage to sin and death.

Rom 8:1  [ There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

This does not mean that our physical bodies will not pass. Christ’s flesh and blood could not inherit the kingdom of God, and ours certainly will not either. But physical death is nothing more than sleep.

Mat 9:24  He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
Joh 11:11  These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

‘Death’ is missing out on that blessed and holy first resurrection. ‘Death’ is what God’s elect are doing daily in this body of flesh. As this flesh is subdued, it is said to die. As we die to our flesh, we live to Christ, and we “are made free from the law of sin and death”. None of this was ever known or even made available to the men of the Old Testament. They even knew that they were not ministering to themselves but to us.

1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of [ your] souls.
1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

If it is written in God’s book for me to be in the second resurrection, then that is the way it will be, but that is not what I aspire to. Like the apostle, I want the fellowship of Christ’s suffering, and to be found worthy to rule and reign with Him, over both this world and over angels in the lake of fire.
You ask if we will be here long enough to overcome our flesh? “He that endures to the end shall be saved”.

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all [ men] for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

“The end” is “the third day”, and if Christ had to wait till the third day to be perfected, then we will too. Will you and I endure? God only really knows, but this should be our goal:

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things [ but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [ but] dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [ this] one thing [ I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Php 3:16  Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

“Let us… be thus minded”.
Here is what I truly believe:

Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [ shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I believe that these words apply to you, if God grants you the faith to receive them.
God bless you. You remain in my prayers.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike