Charts 17-20: Fifth order – from the cross until the rapture
Chart 17
(chart 17)
REFLECTS EARTH BEING UNDER THE FULL CURSE OF GOD
This order is the order that we live in today. It goes from Jesus death & resurrection until the end of the seven year tribulation marked by the Second Coming of Jesus and the beginning of the 1000 year millennium. The major differences between this order and the previous order are the role that the Holy Spirit plays before and after Pentecost, and the fact that after Jesus’ resurrection the spirits of believers go to heaven at death rather than Hades. After Pentecost the Spirit lives within those who are believers in and followers of Jesus.
Chart 18
(chart 18)
FIFTH ORDER IN HEAVEN; THE AGE OF GRACE
There is now another major change in heaven. Man had now been redeemed by Jesus at the cross making it possible for the spirits of believers to now go to heaven at death rather than Abraham’s Bosom in Hades. Thus we might refer to this as the age of God’s grace. It is only through the grace of God that we have any chance of ever getting into heaven. Jesus death for us to buy our pardon for sins made this possible. Satan and his angels still do not have full access to God in this order. After Satan tempted man to sin in Eden he was banned from Eden and the Mount of God (Ezek 28:16). He apparently still has some access to God and to the higher levels of heaven but in a more limited fashion. Satan and his angel’s principal residence is now the lower levels of heaven. There is a major spiritual war going on in heaven over the souls of humans. This battle is between the angelic forces of God and the angelic forces of Satan. Satan’s forces are winning the majority of the battles but Jesus will eventually win the war. Over 90% of humans reject Jesus as their God and thus will never be able to go to heaven.
Chart 19
(chart 19)
FIFTH ORDER ON EARTH; THE AGE OF THE CHURCH AND MAJOR SATANIC INFLUENCE
The fact that the curse of God is upon the earth in the order in which we live is obvious from the extreme wickedness of man, the disease, pain, death, biting insects, vicious animals, destructive forces of nature, etc. Satan is considered to be the ruler of the earth. This is obvious when one considers that most humans choose Satan over Jesus; they choose sin over obedience to Jesus. During the fifth order the Jews are in a state of blindness. They are scattered all over the world until near the end of the period, when their nation is restored and many return to their original homeland, although largely still in unbelief.
The major differences between this order and the previous order are the role that the Holy Spirit plays before and after Pentecost, and the fact that after Jesus’ resurrection the spirits of believers go to heaven at death rather than Hades. After Pentecost the Spirit lives within those who are believers in and followers of Jesus. Pentecost is considered the birthday of the church. The death and resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit gave impetus to the birth, fast growth and spread of the church around the world. The Spirit being in the world through the church has kept the light of Jesus shining in an otherwise dark and sinful world controlled by Satan. Toward the end of this order sin will gain a greater foothold culminating in a great falling away from Christ. This will usher in the return of Jesus to earth in two separate events separated by seven years, the rapture and the Second Coming. The last seven years of this order is a period known as the tribulation, a period that will be initiated by the rapture of the church. Just as mankind was banned from access to heaven and confined to earth at the end of the second order so too will Satan and his evil angels be banned from heaven and confined to earth about the middle of this seven year period. It will be a period when God pours out his judgment on the earth for all of the wickedness of man, in a series of seven judgments. As a consequence the earth will be nearly destroyed. It will be saved from total destruction by the return of Jesus to earth at his Second Coming, Matt 24:21-22.
Chart 20
(chart 20)
THE STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH IN THE FIFTH ORDER
1. UNREDEEMED MAN: THIRD THROUGH SIXTH ORDERS: All unredeemed men, those who do not know or who have not accepted Jesus as Savior, will be sent to the “torments” section of Hades awaiting their final judgment. This judgment will take place at the end of the sixth order. See the discussion in the fourth order for details.
2. REDEEMED MANFIFTH & SIXTH ORDERS: This phase lasts from the time of Jesus death until the start of the millennium when Jesus will renew the three dimensional earth and place it back into a condition resembling the third order. Jesus death at the beginning of this order enabled a major change to be made in what happened to believers in Jesus when they died. He bought their pardon with his death; his shed blood then covered their sins so that they could again be seen as holy and perfect by God, permitting them to enter heaven. This represented the first phase of the removal of the barrier between heaven and earth which had been set up at the time of the fall of man. The spirits of those who accepted Jesus’ pardon were then able to enter heaven at the time of death. This act covered the sins of all believers past, present and future. Thus those in Abrahams Bosom were then eligible to have their spirits go to heaven. At the time of Jesus’ death he took the spirits of the redeemed who were in Abraham’s Bosom to heaven. The rapture will take place seven years before the end of this order and that will complicate things quite a bit. At the rapture Jesus will return to the vicinity of earth with the spirits of all of those in heaven. He will give each of them a glorified body and also collect all living believers on earth to him and transform their human bodies into glorified bodies. Jesus and all believers will then return to heaven for seven years. Each believer in heaven will then have a glorified body which can experience both heaven and earth at the same time. The complication will arise in that when those on earth who become believers after the rapture die they will go to heaven in spirit only. For the seven years of the tribulation there will apparently be believers in heaven both with and without glorified bodies. However it appears that there will be two more resurrections and raptures, one five months after the middle of the tribulation and the other at the Second Coming. Thus at the time of the Second Coming all believers of all ages who have died will have glorified resurrected bodies and will remain on earth to reign with Jesus during the millennium.