InTheFlesh wrote:That scripture you mention in Revelation is a time of judgment.
It would be a little too late to get the message out at that time no?
If the angel is fulfilling the prophesy of preaching to the entire earth
which is when the Lamb is standing on mount Sion,
what happened to all the people that already had died?
Did they hear the gospel or not?
I say YEA!
And when Paul said that the gospel was preached to everyone,
he was including you and I who hadn't been born yet as well.
He knew that the message was spread worldwide and it would continue unto all men until the end of time. We already have the gospel. There's no need to go out preaching. Trust in the Lord that he will do the work to get the message out.
No one can use the excuse that they didn't know.
He is the one who will judge, and he will judge everyone righteously.
Can't you see how STRONG the gospel is still today?
That's what Paul was talking about.
The words of Jesus will continue until the end of time!
We are still debating his every word.
Was the mission accomplished already?
I say YEA!
The gospel is like an Avalanche,
and there's no stopping it.
But the good news of the gospels is hidden until the end of times, so very few people know the good news:
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. (Daniel 12:4)
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot for it is sealed: (Isaiah 29:11)
If it is hidden and unknown, how can it be taught? The typical "gospel message"
which has been widely taught by both Catholics and Protestants is something similar to the following:
In his book [i]Peace with God[/i] Billy Graham wrote:
The Bible teaches that you are an immortal soul. Your soul is eternal and will live forever. In other words, the real you -- the part of you that thinks, feels, dreams, aspires; the ego, the personality-- will never die. The Bible teaches that your soul will live forever in one of two places -- heaven or hell. If you are not a Christian and you have never been born again, then the Bible teaches that your soul goes immediately to a place Jesus called hades, where you will await the judgment of God. The moment a Christian dies, he goes immediately into the presence of Christ. There his soul awaits the resurrection, when the soul and body will be rejoined.
That message is definitely
not the good news! It simply proves that the scriptures are
sealed!
All mankind will be taught the true good news of the gospel before making their choices between everlasting life or the second death.
What becomes of the billions who never even heard the name Jesus? What about everyone who lived before Jesus was born? What about those mentally incompetent and unable to make decisions? What about children who died before they understood about Jesus? What about abortions? Absolutely none of these were ever given a choice to accept or reject Jesus as their Savior before their first death! The good news of the gospel was never explained to them. Is this a fair and just system? In fact, God is fair and just, and none of those listed above will be unjustly cast into hell:
Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. (Revelation 15:3)
All Christians are resurrected to everlasting life at the second coming:
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (I Corinthians 15:22-23)
At that same time all living Christians will be changed to spiritual bodies and meet the resurrected Christians and Jesus in the air:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (I Thessalonians 4:17)
There will be no
human Christian alive on the earth. The resurrected and born again angelic Christians will spend the millennium together with Jesus on the earth and then the second resurrection for all nonbelievers will occur:
...and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. (Revelation 20:4-5)
Those resurrected at the second resurrection will awaken as humans. Would God raise these people again as physical bodies only to humiliate them during judgment before casting them into the lake of fire? Why bother raising them from the dead only to inflict another painful physical death upon them? Once again, this flies in the face of "God is love." If the nonbelievers are being resurrected to be humiliated by judgment before being killed a second time, why not simply allow them to remain dead? Of course, God is love, and He is raising the nonbelievers for a reason! The scriptures state that the gospel is preached to those that are
now dead! From the New International Version of The Holy Bible:
For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. (I Peter 4:5)
The dead cannot be preached to
while dead, as the dead know absolutely nothing:
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing... (Ecclesiastes 9:5)
Those that are "now dead" can only be preached to after regaining consciousness. These dead nonbelievers have known nothing since their first human death. They will regain consciousness upon being resurrected from the dead as humans once again at the second resurrection. At that time, they will be taught the good news of the scriptures and may accept Jesus as their Savior and gain everlasting spiritual life with God at that time! As long as any one human is alive, God is willing to save him or her! This will be the first opportunity for most of them. Those doing the teaching will be those Christians born again at the first resurrection. They will have become priests:
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. (Revelation 20:6)
These priests of God and of Christ will spread the true gospel message to this multitude of nonbelievers. The Bible states that the bulk of humanity will know the holy scriptures from a
child:
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (II Timothy 3:15)
These born again Christians from the first mass resurrection
are these children! They were born as children of the resurrection and have lived through one thousand years of training with Jesus prior to the second resurrection of nonbelievers. Thus they are one day old children! Since they are immortal, a thousand of mortal man's years are like a day to them!
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (II Peter 3:8)
Those humans rejecting Jesus will be cast into the lake of fire and quickly perish. When the last human perishes in the fire, the age of man will be over. There will not be one human alive in the universe. Those humans who accepted Jesus as their Savior are no longer human. They are eternal spiritual bodies who will rule the earth forever with their Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
