Subj: Here Goes Another
Date: 98-03-25
From: XXXX
Pastor Sheila,
I've been reading the Alternate Translations as well as every transcript on your website and there's a recurring thought that has me wondering. If the sons of God are going to appear when the mind of Christ has come into full stature in the first fruits or two witness company, does this mean that eternal life has never been Into anyone in past generations? Is this (or a future) generation the only one blessed with being able to obtain full stature in a human lifetime?
PASTOR SHEILA: No. According to my present studies, Elijah, Elisha, and Jonah also inherited eternal life, but did not go on to become savior of the world. Jesus alone is savior of the world.
I guess it just seems kind of unfair that all those who were striving in the past to live out of the Mind of Christ and then died before Christ was fully matured in them will never have another chance.
PASTOR SHEILA: Many moving on in Christ feel this way because they don't understand that we are neither this body nor this personality. Our true reality is that we are the inner man -- but in our fallen condition this is hard for us to comprehend -- and the inner man goes on, but the physical body and personality die from generation to generation.
Is it just because Jehovah's time to implement His plan is only for one chosen generation?
PASTOR SHEILA: Jehovah's plan is for one spiritual generation which transcends all physical generations, and the name of that generation is Christ. This means anyone and everyone whose personality is saved through union with Christ Jesus, no matter where in the serpent's time line their physical body appeared.
I'm a little confused. I know that the man, Jesus Christ, is the only one to reach full stature and ascend into a spiritual man, sinless. He is the only one and no one has ever done it since then.
PASTOR SHEILA: We don't know that. Elijah was glorified, and there is a Scripture that indicates that John might have ascended into sinlessness, and perhaps Paul, but I have never studied this subject out fully. However, no one that I know of has been glorified since Jesus.
But, if the time is coming when Christ will appear in those who are living out of the Mind of Christ, will He appear in those that in the past have also tried to live out of the Mind of Christ? I guess I just feel kind of hopeless when I read the Doctrine of Christ and see that the full stature will be reached by only a choice few.
PASTOR SHEILA: This is not true. Let me explain the spiritual lifetime to you. Now, as a man has many consecutive years of existence, each year building upon the prior years, and the mature man being the sum total of all of his years, so the spiritual man has many lifetimes also. Where is the physical body and the personality of your ten-year old child? What happened to you at five-years old? To you at 13 years old? Your personality and physical body at every point in time, up unto this present time, have been swallowed up into the person you now are. In like manner, everyone who has ever had an experience or experiences in Christ Jesus, will be a part of the full grown man.
It is difficult for the carnal mind to comprehend, but the spiritual man is so great, that he is experiencing many years of his spiritual life at the same time, and each whole lifetime of many years that a mortal man experiences, is the equivalent of one year of the spiritual man's lifetime. Each one of us is a part of the whole spiritual man. None of us is a spiritual man unto himself. So whatever experiences Christ has through our personality goes on, and in Him, we go on, just as you as a ten-year old still exists today as a part of the mature woman, wife and mother who you have become.
It almost seems fatalistic, and unreachable for a mortal, sinful, human like myself.
PASTOR SHEILA: It is unreachable for mortal, sinful, humans like ourselves. That's why we need a savior, and thanks be to God we have one, even the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are possible.
I suppose I'm hoping for more in this lifetime and in the next if the Lord has chosen me to be a part of eternal life.
PASTOR SHEILA: We all are. The trick is to line our hopes and expectations up with the mind of Christ. We are disappointed, when we think with our carnal mind, but this is just spiritually immaturity. As we grow, we realize that what Jesus has for us is greater than anything our carnal mind could imagine, and that all things are possible to us who believe.
I was taught that those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
PASTOR SHEILA: This is true, but it is a great mystery that the spiritual, inner man continues on in our offspring. This is how the Lord can say with righteousness, that the curse continues unto the third and fourth generation, and the blessings, unto 1000 generations. It is the same spiritual man in the first generation as in the fourth. This is how the Pharisees could say that Abraham was their father, even though they were living many generations after Abraham.
But, I suppose I never knew fully what it meant to be saved, and the true meaning of eternal life.
PASTOR SHEILA: This is true. But be encouraged, because the truth about salvation and eternal life is greater than anything your carnal mind could imagine. It is only your carnal mind that is discouraged.
John 16:33
33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (KJV)
