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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ETERNAL LIFE AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
MOTTO : MAKING POWERFUL DISCIPLES

BEREA CHRISTIAN FELLOWDHIP IS a Back to the Bible Church organization
Which re-examines the doctrines of contemporary theology and by the help of the Holy spirit throws more light on what the Bible teaches with the primary aim of getting the souls of God’s children saved and making them qualified for the Kingdom of heaven.
Primarily, there is a difference between eternal life and the kingdom of heaven
And also a difference between salvation of the spirit and salvation of the soul . Unfortunately contemporary theology which is the basis of the contemporary church does not show these differences. Hence born again Christians who have eternal life think they are also going to enter the kingdom of heaven automatically but this is a great deception.
Likewise born again Christians whose spirits are saved think their souls too are automatically saved which is another great deception. In this tract, the differences between salvation of the spirit and salvation of the soul are revealed.
TIME: Eternal Life as the term implies is for eternity. Eternity as our experience will be consummated after this earth and the heaven have passed away and a new earth and a new heaven are created.. All born again children of God shall spend eternity in the New Jerusalem. (Rev 21:10).
On the other hand, the kingdom of heaven refers to a one thousand year reign of Christ on this same earth. It will be a reign of peace and prosperity for Satan shall be bound in a bottomless pit for those years. (Rev. 20:1-3)
The children of God who are worthy to partake of this kingdom shall be richly rewarded. This kingdom of heaven on earth shall begin at the sound of the seventh trumpet according to Revelation 11:15:
‘And the seventh angel sounded: and there were great voices in heaven, saying THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD HAVE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST: AND HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER.
However, the kingdom, of heaven on earth shall come to an end according to I Corinthians 15:24-25 when Christ shall have brought all enemies under his feet and then hand over all things including himself under the authority of God the Father, “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; When He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power for He must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet.
It is after these events, that the heavens and the earth shall pass away and the new heavens and the new earth shall be created wherein, God’s children shall spend eternity.

(2). GOD’S TREATMENT:
God treats eternal life as a gift. Romans 6:23 says; “The wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life Through Jesus Christ our Lord ‘’
A gift is something we do not work for. Hence all we need to do to have eternal life is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

On the other hand God does not treat the Kingdom of heaven as a gift but as a reward.
A reward is something you work for. It is not for free. In Mathew 7:21 Jesus Himself said: “ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven ‘’
That means entering the Kingdom of heaven is a reward for doing the will of the Father.
Who are the people who call Jesus, Lord, Lord? In 1 Corinthians 12:3, we read: “ Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. ‘’
This shows that the people who call Jesus, Lord, Lord are people who have had an experience with the Holy Ghost; and if any one has ever had any experience with the Holy Ghost; the first experience he would receive is to be made a child of God. It was therefore not to unbelievers that Jesus was speaking but to children of God. Mathew 7:21 is part of the Sermon on the Mount and this sermon begins from Mathew chapter 5. In Mathew 5:1-2 we see the kind of people Jesus was speaking to. It reads: “And seeing the multitudes, He went up unto a mountain; and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him. And He opened his mouth and taught them saying. ‘’ You can see that Jesus was not preaching the Sermon on the Mount to the multitude who could include unbelievers. He preached it to only His disciples and no one can be a disciple of Christ without first being a child of God. Moreover in Mathew 5:48, Jesus actually referred to these disciples as the children of God. He said to them: “ Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. ‘’
This was a very revolutionary statement. Remember all those disciples were Jews and in the Jewish tradition, to say that God is your Father was a crime punishable by death.
They were even ready to stone Jesus for calling God His Father. In John 5:17-18, we read: “ But Jeseus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal to God ‘’. To the Jewish mind, a man brings forth a man and an animal brings forth an animal. Therefore if God also has as a child, then the child must be God. And since they cannot accept that a man can be God, anyone who called himself a child of God was seen as a blasphemer who must be killed. That was why the Jews never called themselves the children of God. They called themselves the children of Israel. It was among such people that Jesus referred to His disciples as God’s children. He credited the sonship of the disciples to them even before His death and resurrection. Yet to these same children of God He said, “ Not everyone that calls me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven ‘’ . This clearly shows that the fact that you are a child of God, by virtue of the fact that you have received eternal life through faith in Christ is no guarantee that you will enter into the kingdom of heaven. This is because the Kingdom of heaven is not a gift. It is a reward for the children of God who do the will of their Father in heaven. That was why the pardoned thief who died on the right side of Jesus on the cross could not be promised the Kingdom even though that was what he asked for. Jesus could only promise him paradise, which is different from the Kingdom of heaven. In Luke 23:42-43 we read: “ And he said unto Jesus, Lord remember me when thou cometh into thy Kingdom. And Jesus saith unto him, truly I say unto thee, today shall thou be with me in paradise ‘’ .
Paradise is just a transitional place for the righteous dead until the return of Jesus to reward his servants. The thief was saved at the last minute. He received eternal life but was not qualified to enter into the kingdom of heaven because he had never done any work for God. This must be a warning to people who think they can cheat God by living in worldliness almost all their life and then escape by giving their lives to Christ a few weeks or days before they die Apart from the fact that you can die suddenly without having the chance to give your life to Christ; you will miss the kingdom of heaven even if you receive Christ and for that matter eternal life, just before you die. The reason is clear. The kingdom of heaven is not a gift, but a reward for the works you have done according to the will of your Father in heaven.