Hey Mike,

In reading some of your articles and talking with a friend of mine that loves your writings you hold a view much like the Jehovah witnesses concerning the body. Anyway I’m attaching a couple of writings for you to consider, I am not a writer so read for content only. These writings were in response to a web site and some very mean spirited people. I’m sending them to you to stir up your pure mind in Christ and not desiring to get in a … contest with you. I believe you have a lot of good writings and understanding, but like us all still fall short of the glory (opinion) of the Father. Remember God is spirit and a monkey comes from a monkey and donkey comes from a donkey. You can over come and take dominion of the earth you were placed in and be Holy and Perfect as he is.

Joh 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of god (deity).

This is why Jesus said we are gods.

Joh 10:34 (quoting from Psa 82) and we were created in the image of God. The image is not flesh and blood, God is spirit.

In Christ,
O____

Hi O____
Thank you for taking the time to send all these writings.
You say:

… you hold a view much like the Jehovah witnesses concerning the body.

This reveals that you have not read much of what is on our site, because we in no way believe what the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe about the body. They believe we will inherit eternal bodies of flesh and forever live on this physical earth.
On the other hand, we believe that the earth is as much a part of the heavens as is the sun, and that when the New Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven, that this earth passes away and is replaced by “a new heavens and a new earth” because:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

But that is not the subject of this e- mail.
I looked at the first two of your writings, and what I saw in both cases was what I call ‘the fullness now doctrine’.
If we had fullness now and were not intended to die and relinquish this body of flesh, then there would be no one “asleep in Christ”. And yet that is exactly where every one of the apostles is “until the redemption of the purchased possession”. The only people who “will not sleep in Christ” are the ones who happen to be here on this earth when this age comes to its consummation.

1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

But what is the hope of those who do “sleep in Christ”, as have all of God’s apostles and saints since Christ, to this very day?

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1Co 15:19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

“We are saved by hope”, and if we already had resurrected bodies, we would not need hope. We hope for things we do not yet have.

Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Paul is, at this moment, lying in the dust of the earth, “waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body” (vs 23).
That is the very same phrase used in Eph 1:14.

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

That is what I am doing. So we now have “the earnest of our inheritance, which is the holy spirit of promise” and are sealed with that spirit “until the redemption of the purchased possession”.
“The earnest” is the down payment”, and the “redemption of the purchased possession” is the resurrection from the dead, because “all live unto God”. That statement is made in reference to the resurrection of men who have died, like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Luk 20:37  Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Luk 20:38  For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

Even Jesus acknowledged the temporary state of death.

Joh 11:14  Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

At the risk of appearing, to use your words, “get into a…. contest” with you, I will state the simply fact that you have confused “earnest of the spirit” with “the redemption of the purchased possession” and with being “sealed with the holy spirit of promise” which gives us the hope of a resurrection from among the dead.

Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Paul poses and answers a very legitimate question. Let us too, “with patience wait for it”.

Luk 21:19  In your patience possess ye your soul.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike