A "Grain Of Wheat" Ministries publication

Written by David W. Dyer

INDEX

Chapter 1: THE MILLENNIUM LOST

Chapter 2: ARE WE IN THE MILLENNIUM TODAY?

Chapter 3: MORE SIGNS?

Chapter 4: SOME SPURIOUS ARGUMENTS?

Chapter 5: FOCUSED ON HEAVEN

Chapter 6: WHY IS THE KINGDOM IMPORTANT?

Chapter 7: "OUTER DARKNESS"

Chapter 8: OTHER SCRIPTURES

Chapter 9: SOME REALLY BAD THEOLOGY

Chapter 10: REAL TRANSFORMATION (Current Chapter)

Chapter 10: REAL TRANSFORMATION

Christianity is not magic. Although there are many supernatural and invisible experiences involved, it is not magic. Why am I saying this? It is because many believers cannot imagine why any Christians would need to be punished. Of what use would such a thing be? Most think that it does not matter in what condition believers find themselves when Jesus comes because He will change them instantly, “in the twinkling of an eye,” to be righteous. This is Christian magic.

Please bear with me here. This, and other similar wrong notions, are so pervasive and deeply rooted in Christians' thinking that it will take some time to unravel them.

It is true that when we believe into Jesus, God can forgive our sins. This is not magic. All that is necessary for God to forgive our sins is a decision on His part to do so. Of course, His decision to forgive us is based upon our faith.

But remember that He is a God who sees into our hearts. He sees our thoughts from far away (Ps 139:2). So, He knows when our faith is genuine. Based on His perception concerning our sincerity, He forgives us. God will not forgive someone who is intending to continue on sinning. He will not forgive a hypocrite.

When God forgives us, we are forgiven. This is a wonderful and eternal thing. But - and there is a huge BUT here - although God can and does forgive what we do when we repent, He CANNOT forgive what we are! And it is what we are that is at the root of the problem.

Any amount of forgivness on God's part cannot change this. What we are needs to be changed! Even when we stand before Him, He could theoretically forgive us for any evil deeds, but not for who and what we are. We would still be sinful.

Please pay careful attention to this. We sin, not because we just slip up once in a while, but because it is our nature to sin. We sin because our human life has a sinful nature. That is the way we were born, with a sinful nature. Therefore, in order to be holy or righteous, we need a radical change, not just forgiveness! How, then, is this going to happen?

Jesus came to this earth in human form, then died and rose again to make us holy, to make us righteous. He wants to change us from what we are as natural human beings into what He is. How does He intend to do this? This wonderful process involves several steps.

The first step is to give to those who believe a new life. This new, holy life is given to replace our old, sinful one. This life is the life of God the Father which can be born into us. We can be “born from above” (Jn 3:3). Although this is an invisible, spiritual event, it is very real. It is something which we must actually experience.

It is not good enough just to try to convince ourselves, or for someone else to try to convince us, that it has happened. If we have not had this experience, then we cannot really be considered a Christian.

This spiritual birth is very much parallel to a physical birth in which the egg and sperm join to form an embryo. In our case, the Holy Spirit enters into our being and joins with our human spirit to make a new creation.

We read: “...that which is born of the Spirit, is our human spirit” (Jn 3:6 FLNT). We also read: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation inside of him…” (2 Cor 5:17 FLNT). And “...he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor 6:17 FLNT). This new birth is a real event. To repeat, it must be experiential, not merely theoretical or doctrinal.

This impartation of God's life is not something He does lightly. It is not based on someone saying the “magic” prayer. Some may believe that if we “say the right words,” God is obligated to “save us.”

But this is not the case. Instead, when we truly believe, God knows this. As stated before, He knows our hearts. So when He sees that we have genuinely believed, He then gives us His holy life, causing it to be “born” within us.

It seems important to clarify here a common misunderstanding about eternal life. Many, if not most Christians, seem to think that receiving eternal life is a kind of grant from God for their own life to keep existing forever, or at least go to heaven instead of hell.

Therefore, some imagine that if we don't measure up to His standards, this grant can be revoked. God can change His mind. This revocation of the “grant” would be “losing your salvation” in their minds.

But what we are seeing here is that eternal life is NOT a grant for us to live longer. Instead, it is the birthing inside of us of a life which is inherently eternal. This is the Father's own life. This makes such a revocation impossible. As we have seen, now that God is our Father, it is His responsibility to care for us for eternity.

The next step in the process of being made holy takes more time. It is called “transformation.” The Greek word used here is METAMORPHOÔ from which we get our English word, metamorphosis. In this process, the larvae of a moth or butterfly spins a cocoon or excretes a chrysalis around itself. Then it spends some time in a death-like state, with nothing apparent happening.

After a significant amount of time, this creature emerges. But it has changed! It is beautiful! Instead of being an earthbound creature crawling along the ground or on vegetation, it is now a creature of the heavens. It can fly! This is the meaning of the Greek word translated as “transformation” in the Bible.

How, then, does this work in our case? It works through our experience of the death and resurrection of Christ. This, too, is not theoretical. It is not magic. It must become our experience. As we give ourselves to God and pray for Him to apply the death of His Son to our human life and nature, we will become different people. We must enter into His death so that we can be changed.

The time of the larvae in the cocoon is representative of time in a coffin. It represents our entering into a death experience through Jesus. We can have Jesus' death on the cross made real to us. Our old life can actually be put to death. Then the resurrection of Jesus can also be our experience. We can then walk in newness of life (Rm 6:4).

It is true that when Jesus died, all humanity died with Him. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:14: “We understand things in this way: that since One died on behalf of all men, then all have died too.” We also read Paul saying: “I am crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20).

However, this spiritual truth will do us no good whatsoever if we do not experience it for ourselves! It cannot remain merely our doctrine or “belief” but must become real in our lives. Our old life with its sinful nature must be put to death.

It is not good enough just to try to believe that we have died with Christ as so many try to do. Please stop trying to convince yourself that you are dead when the sin in your daily life testifies that your old life is still very much alive. This kind of “believing” will do nothing for you. This death must become real to you. You must experience it!

Perhaps some verses from Romans will help us here. It is written: “For as we become united together with him in the form of his death, to that same degree we will also be like him in his resurrection. We know this: that our ‘old man' is being crucified with him so that sin in its entirety would be being rendered inoperative, in order that we would no longer be in slavery to sin. For he who is dying is being freed from sin.

“And if we die together with the Anointed One [actually experience his death], we are believing that we will also be sharing his life, knowing that the Anointed One, having been raised from the dead, no longer dies since death has no more dominion over him” (Rm 6:5-9 FLNT).

So here is God's plan: that our old, natural, human life would experience a death, a crucifixion. This is like the larvae entering into a coffinlike cocoon.

Then the new life, His own holy life which has been born into us, grows up and replaces ours which is being put to death. This is the gospel message in a nutshell. Any other is simply imagination and wrong.

Today's church wrongly believes in magic. They think that if you say the “magic words” or “the sinner's prayer,” then God will forget all about your sin and you will go to heaven someday when you die or when He returns.

But God cannot just forget about or ignore what we are. This must be changed. If we somehow were to enter into eternity without this change, we would someday sin. This would then destroy the whole new creation. Just as Adam and Eve's one sin destroyed this present world, so too one sin, just one, would pollute God's new creation. Therefore, no one with a sinful nature can get in.

So, we need to be “metamorphosed” or transformed. We need a new life with a new nature to become the source of our living. So Jesus came, not merely to forgive us, but to provide us with a new supernatural life with a sinless nature. He came to bring us God's life with its holy nature! What a wonderful salvation.

But there is not “room” in our being for two lives. In order for the new life to grow and spread, the other one needs to go. God's provision for getting rid of this old life is death. In fact, the only way for any life to cease is to experience death. The only way for us to be rid of our sinful life is for it to die. So Jesus provided a death for us to experience.

Have you been taught this yet? Did you know that Christians need to die? Didn't Jesus say that we need to carry our cross and follow Him? Does that mean lugging around a piece of wood or does it mean experiencing His death for ourselves?

Let me give you an example here. It is true that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. Yet this will do no one any good until they believe into Him and experience the resulting new birth. You see, there is some action required on our part. It is not automatic. It is an eternal truth, yet a truth which must become our experience.

In the same way, our crucifixion with Christ must become real in our lives. Although it is an eternal truth, this too is not automatic. We must experience it. Furthermore, just as Paul did, we must experience it every day (1 Cor 15:31). It is only by actually experiencing the death of our old life and nature that we can be free from sin.

In Philippians 3:10,11 we read: “I want to know him and the power of his resurrection - which comes through participating in his sufferings and becoming integrated into his death - so that in this way I may be experiencing the resurrection from the dead” (FLNT).

None of this is magic. It is indeed invisible and spiritual, but it can and must be experiential. We must “know” these things through “participating in His sufferings and becoming integrated into His death.” This truth cannot remain only doctrine or theory. We need to possess it for ourselves through experience. If not, we will never be freed from sin.

Now I do remember the verse about our being changed “in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye.” As already stated, many are believing that this verse means that God will make them instantly holy when He returns. They probably realize that their life is not really holy and so are putting a lot of hope in this verse.

However, a careful reading of this passage reveals that it is not talking about our human life - our soul-life - but about our body. It is our human body which will be glorified instantly, not our inner life and nature. God has made another provision for that to change.

It is precisely this provision which we have been discussing. You see, God cannot and will not magically change us. This would be a violation of who we are and of our free will. Instead, He has provided a way for us to change, but it involves our willing cooperation. It is this transformation process which we have been discussing. We must seek Him diligently in order to be able to experience this transformation. He will not automatically do it to us, whether we want Him to or not.

Being forgiven is not enough. It is only the beginning. We must be changed into the image of Jesus to qualify to reign with Him (2 Cor 3:18). We must be freed from sin, not merely forgiven. It doesn't matter how many times you are forgiven or how much you are forgiven, your fallen, sinful nature can never enter into the new creation which is coming.

Far too many Christians are waiting for that magical day when Jesus will make them different people from who they really are. This will never happen! It is a false hope generated by wrong teaching. In order to be different people who are freed from sin, we must take advantage of the process which Jesus provides for us, right now in this age.

Our changing must be done through this process that He died to bring us! It cannot happen any other way. God's way is the transformation process which we have been discussing. If we don't take advantage of it, then we will have wasted the opportunity and we will suffer the consequences for wasting it. There will be no second chance.

WHY IS THERE A NEED FOR PUNISHMENT?

Now we come to the question of punishment. When believers are rebellious and do not submit themselves to the process God has provided, they will stand before His throne unprepared. They will still be unholy. This cannot be changed by magic.

Of course, God is able to do anything, but He will never change who a person is without their willing cooperation. We must willingly cooperate with the plan which He has offered us through His death, not with some “magic” we hope will happen later when He comes. And when we appear before Him, the opportunity for the transformation process to take place will have passed.

For those who did not seek and take advantage of transformation during their lifetime, God has provided another mechanism which will also be experiential. It is called punishment.

This suffering will, over time, help these children of God change their own minds. They will willingly abandon their self-centeredness. They will willingly forsake their rebellion. They will become submissive and yielding. They will become ready for eternity when it comes.

Unfortunately, this “mechanism” does not seem to provide gaining more of God's life. It only involves loss: the loss of our own stubbornness and rebellion. This is so that those who did not prepare themselves can enter into the new creation without these sinful traits. Through this suffering, they will find true repentance.

But what a difficult way to arrive: a millennium of suffering to arrive at a place which could have been attained in a few short years of obedience! That would be a great tragedy.

WHY THE DEVIL WANTS TO HIDE THE MILLENNIUM TRUTH

Hopefully, this discussion will help you see why the devil does not want the church to know the truth about the millennium. It is a teaching which he wants to hide so that believers won't be motivated to seek the Lord and become more holy today.

Just as he has succeeded in obscuring many important truths of the scriptures - including some we have been discussing such as transformation and being freed from sin - he wants to keep Christians in the dark about the coming millennium and its consequences for them.

The devil is extremely intelligent, much more so than you and I. He has had 2,000 years to study how to distort the scriptures to make them seem to say things that they do not really say and diminish their impact.

He makes his suggestions to those trying to understand the scriptures with purely mental reasoning. He works to alter their meaning, subtly changing their impact. He inspires Bible translators to change the meaning of a few key words to “help” readers understand.

He has managed to promote on a worldwide scale the false idea that once you “say the prayer” there can be no more negative consequences. Everything's forgiven. It has all been done. All you have to do is try to believe it. There is not really any need for freedom from sin to become real to you.

This is his message. He has succeeded in watering down the gospel today to such an extent that we have a world full of believers who are engulfed in sin.

Of course, there are exceptions. There are Christians who love God and are serious about following Him. But there is no denying the fact that the church as a whole today is not holy. It does not express God's divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). In many groups the behavior of the members is barely different from the world around them. And it is just getting worse, not better.

This twisting of the scriptures is exactly what the devil has done in the case of the coming kingdom. He has provided men and women with interpretations of the scriptures which mask the truth. He has shown them “reasonable” alternatives to a literal interpretation.

Everything about the kingdom can be seen as allegorical. It's all just types and shadows, says he, along with the amillennialists. Don't be a participant with the devil in spreading his lies.

So men with their human reasonings have been outsmarted by a being even more intelligent than they, to explain away the coming kingdom and its consequences for believers. This is the work of the kingdom of darkness. I hope that you are not participating and helping in this work.

In general, I believe that any interpretation of the Bible which makes God's truth seem easier and more palatable is probably not the truth. Any teaching or theology which assures us we are right with God while we are still in sin is most certainly wrong.

The only way we can know we are right with God is by actually being right with Him. We can have assurance of this by becoming intimate with Him through prayer and obedience.

Then, through this relationship, we can sense if He is pleased with us or not. Don't let anyone convince you with subtly twisted Bible verses that everything's OK between you and God when you know in your heart that it is not. Get right with God yourself so you can have a conscience free of guilt and serve Him with joy.

In these last days, there is a desperate need for a restoration of the truth! The church needs to hear it! So many are drowning in sin, thinking that it doesn't matter and that there can be and will be no consequences. Who do you think convinced them of that? It certainly was not Jesus.

I have personally seen the correct understanding of the true kingdom message change lives. I have seen it generate in hearers a genuine fear of the Lord and promote life-changing commitments to His work and will.

This is a message the church needs to hear! Let us forsake the lies and darkness which the devil has managed to insert into the doctrine of today's church. Let us return with all of our hearts to Jesus' will and way. Let us, moving in the fear of God, prepare ourselves for His soon coming and His kingdom here on the earth.

Partial list of churches who are amillennialist

Eastern Orthodox

Oriental Orthodox

Anglican

Roman Catholic Church

Lutheran

Reformed Anglican

Methodist

Amish

Old Order Mennonites

Conservative Mennonites

Churches of Christ

Christian Church/Disciples of Christ

Christian churches and churches of Christ

Association of Grace Baptist Churches in England

Some Presbyterians

End of Chapter 10

Read other chapters online:

Chapter 1: THE MILLENNIUM LOST

Chapter 2: ARE WE IN THE MILLENNIUM TODAY?

Chapter 3: MORE SIGNS?

Chapter 4: SOME SPURIOUS ARGUMENTS?

Chapter 5: FOCUSED ON HEAVEN

Chapter 6: WHY IS THE KINGDOM IMPORTANT?

Chapter 7: "OUTER DARKNESS"

Chapter 8: OTHER SCRIPTURES

Chapter 9: SOME REALLY BAD THEOLOGY

Chapter 10: REAL TRANSFORMATION (Current Chapter)