Lookahead: Even the “hellish” Near Death Experiences (NDE) in which believers experienced hell, but arrived in heaven with their “clothes smoking,” resulted in access to Jesus, joyful departed friends and relatives, and/or the throne room.²  And you could say that these were the “greasiest” NDErs…

As a reminder,  I am referencing the scriptures which either cite the wrecking behavior itself, or represent God’s truth which helped me to recognize a Kingdom wrecking lie (e.g., “there is therefore now no condemnation” prompted—”we deserve to be punished.”)  

Lie #6: God exists to bless us regardless of our heart condition/allegiance to Jesus. (Hebrews 3:15,19; Romans 13:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:8,9, 2:3, 2:8,10; 1 Timothy 6:17)

As mentioned in last week’s post, Jesus Himself was clear that the religious elite who were denying Him were not going to gain entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven—we could say, on either side of Glory.  In referring to the hypocritical prayer warriors in the crew, who were play-acting with the primary thread of their mental process—while running multiple hyper-judgmental threads in the background—Jesus said, in Matt 6:5, “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” Anyone who is like the hypocritical Pharisee in Luke 18:11 who was thanking God that he was not an unholy sinner “say, for example, like that Tax Collector over there,” has bought into Lie #6 and is definitely not Kingdom Occupier (KO) material. 

Lie #7: God doesn’t want us to be blessed. (John 10:10, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Romans 8:1)

This lie comes with a bunch of sub-lies, or reasons why, like:  We’re bad, we’re selfish, we haven’t asked—or we’ve asked for the wrong thing/reasons, He’ll bless us when He’s good ‘n ready, and we don’t appreciate the blessings we already have—so why would we deserve more? ¹   These are actually companion lies to Lie #2:  God forgave our sins, but we still needed to be punished for them.  As long as we believe these lies, KO status will elude us.

Lie #8: The spiritual gifts are not for today. (1 Corinthians 13:8)

Ironically, when I was researching this on the web, I came up with yet more lies about the spiritual gifts (15!) in two books by Steven Bremmer:  Six Lies People Believe About Divine Healing and Nine Lies People Believe About Speaking in Tongues.  The latter addresses some of the CONOPs (Concept of Operations) issues, as well as some beliefs at the ends of the spectrum, on both sides.  For example, one lie was that people who don’t speak in tongues aren’t saved…and the opposite end of the spectrum…”Tongues? Nope! Not for today.”  In the book about healing, the author attempts to address the lies that people buy into, which might interfere with their healing.   I would say that believing all these various lies about the spiritual gifts would interfere with becoming a KO. 

Lie #9: it is OK to counterfeit miracles if it gets people saved. (Romans 15:18,19)

As described in the Book of Acts, Simon the Sorcerer had a large following in Samaria when he was working his magic.  He either deceived by sleight-of-hand or was an outright instrument of the enemy.  Regardless, the people were calling him “the Great Power of God!”  But when Simon became a believer and risked losing his customer base, he wanted to switch his paradigm to working “God’s magic.”  The apostle, Peter, did not hold back in expressing God’s anger –  Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.” Acts 8:21-23

Bottom line, hypocrisy evoked the strongest negative response from Jesus during His earthwalk, and that hasn’t changed 2K years later.  Any KO candidate would have to lose that behavior 100%. 

Lie #10: the Kingdom of heaven has the same framework as any earthly Kingdom.  (Matt 6:5, 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, Ephesians 6:8)

I have heard all kinds of theories about what heaven will be like.  For example, people who have served the LORD faithfully on earth will be higher in the heavenly echelon than the “greasy grace” folks.  And, in fact, the former will have leadership positions in heaven.  Also, some people who barely made it in don’t get to see Jesus at all, or very infrequently and from a distance.  Plus the ones who slid in under the wire will be at the “back of the room” and cannot approach the throne.  I decided a couple of years ago that this cannot be the case—because…there are no tears in heaven.  And if I got to heaven and found out that these theories were correct, I would start crying instantly. 😊

Additionally, 100% of the dozens of the Near Death Experiences (NDE) that I’ve read or heard about did not refer to rigid hierarchical structures, in which people who were “holy” on earth become the bosses in heaven.  And, as detailed in Kingdom Post #12 and the Imagine Heaven book, Ian McCormack lived like the devil, and died as Jesus was leading Ian in the prayer of salvation.  Talk about Greasy Grace!  Yet, he had full access to Jesus and His Glory if he chose to remain in heaven.  It was Ian’s choice to go back and take care of his mother.  Even the “hellish” NDE’s in which believers experienced hell, but arrived in heaven with their “clothes smoking,” resulted in access to Jesus, joyful departed friends and relatives, and/or the throne room.²  And you could say that these were the “greasiest” NDErs…

Regardless, anyone who is competing for a heavenly crown or even doing church work today for earthly rewards is probably not KO material.  

Lie #11: God deliberately keeps some people out of the Kingdom. (Romans 11:7,8)

Last night, I heard an End Times teacher talking on TV about how the groundwork is now being laid for another Jewish Holocaust!  That sickeningly terrifying thought definitely got my attention.  The teacher based this theory on the fact that 2/3rds of the world population will die during the Tribulation.  So if that ratio holds for the Jewish people as well, it would be like the annihilation of the European Jews all over again. ☹

I definitely ran this to ground and found that opinions vary on whether this is a global reference and/or it applies to Israel.  The Old Testament scripture with the 2/3rds reference reads, “In the whole land,” declares the Lord, “two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it.”  Zec 13:8

Here is a response from a Christian Zionist website:  There is a popular belief, even among Christian lovers of Israel, that according to Zechariah’s prophecy, two-thirds of the Jewish people in Israel “will be cut off and perish” (Zech. 13:8).  So when we read Zechariah’s prophecy, I believe it must be understood in light of God’s favor being shown to Israel today. Not in terms of the divine displeasure the nation has already suffered. If we look at the prophecy in full context we see it follows these words, “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones” (Zech 13:7). We know this is speaking of Yeshua, as John informed us (John 26:31). So we can safely assume the judgment that follows is connected to that first-century rejection of him.³

And a Non-Denominational (I believe) Christian response:  A careful reading of Zechariah 13:8-9 shows that this 2/3rds will perish sometime between the scattering that took place after the crucifixion and the beginning of the Great Tribulation. One interpretation of this has the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust representing the 2/3rds. But it’s also possible that this many Jews could die during the Seal and Trumpet judgments of Daniel’s 70th Week.⁴

Bottom line, the prospect of another holocaust is unthinkable.  And anyone who is anti-Semitic, or who believes that God is anti-Semitic on any level, is not KO material.  Romans 11:2:  So if all the world is greatly enriched through their failure and through their fall great spiritual wealth is given to the non-Jewish people imagine how much more Israel’s awakening will bring to us all.

To be continued…

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¹Crosswalk website:  /slideshows/10-reasons-god-might-not-be-blessing-your-life.html

²youtube website:  /watch?v=AJ6kTmStVDU

³Israel Today website:  /read/will-two-thirds-of-israelis-perish/

⁴GraceThruFaith website:  /ask-a-bible-teacher/will-two-thirds-of-earths-population-die/