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It is time for the world to repent, for people in it to realise that the commonwealth of heaven (Philippians 3:20) is not entered by the unredeemed vile, vicious and assertive (Matthew 5:1-11, Revelation 21:8 could not be clearer). It is not another name for a place where what wins, sings its own hymns to itself, or thanks God it is not as other men are (Ephesians 2:8, Romans 3), but a place where the bruised and battered face of Christ has faced sin and achieved pardon through vicarious, indeed substitutionary suffering for all who do in fact receive Him.

Heaven is holiness to the Lord in the presence of the Lord where, the past of sin abundantly and eternally atoned for (Hebrews 9:12), the praise of the Lord in full accord with the visible reality of His divinely established quarters (John 14:1-3, II Corinthians 5), He is the Temple and the Light, He Himself.

It cannot be melded or welded to human hearts on the rampage, in their fame or their name (Ephesians 2:9-10); it is a gift of God, a haven from the Lord, a heavenly solace of rescue achieved by God Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ, His everlasting Son, His word and the only Saviour, who as God has accomplished all necessary for this gratuitous provision. It is the place likewise of true and undefiled faith, for without faith you cannot please God. It is obtained by no sacrament, series of sacraments, apostolic succession, diverse doctrines of devils, obstruction of the everlasting gospel, seamless robes of your works and His as some sort of synthetic plastic container in which you may hope at last to be received, dumped on the docks of that far-off land.

Rest assured, in that light any part from yourself would perish instantly, and you with it (Cf. Matthew 21:31-32, 39-46, 22:11-14, Galatians 6:14 and cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms, The Living God, Appendix III, pp. 319ff., The Kingdom of Heaven... , Appendix, and SMR pp. 520ff..)

"EXCEPT YOU REPENT YOU WILL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH",

is the message of Jesus Christ (Luke 13), and this:

"IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THAT I AM HE, YOU WILL DIE IN YOUR SINS"(John 8:24).

What indeed were the first recorded words from the Christ, when He came back from the temptation in the wilderness at the start of His Messianic ministry. They were these: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the Gospel" - Mark 1:15, and "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matthew 4:17). The power that went with it (cf. Biblical Blessings, Appendix III, The Magnificence of the Messiah) merely accentuated the realities which He showed continually in person and in life, in word and in wisdom.

The opportune time had indeed arrived, as Daniel had predicted (see SMR pp. 886ff.), and at this sudden epoch, this stately moment was that cutting off of the Messiah which in the end would become the ONLY way home to God. It had arrived, time, King and Cross: all came as it was to come, amidst the varied identikit requirements of the word of God for the presentation of His priceless gift (cf. SMR pp. 751ff., 931-943, 973A; II Cor. 9:15, 8:9, Ephesians 3:8, 2:8).

Now that this time has passed, and the time of devastations, also predicted in Daniel 9:24-27, has come, as Christ Himself also has declared (Matthew 24 cf. SMR Ch.8), repentance is not distanced. Rather it is made more intimate than ever. The time of salvation has COME; and the time of judgment is NEAR.

If you have nothing to repent of, then you have nothing of the kingdom, for Christ statedly did not come to save righteous people but sinners (Matthew 9:13). As for the righteousness of the Pharisees whom He there confronted, it was such that unless you had MORE, you COULD NOT ENTER THE KINGDOM (Matthew 5:20). This righteousness is gained as a gift through His redemption (Matthew 20:28, Romans 6:23, Isaiah 61:10, Matthew 22:11); and those ashamed of it are in turn treated to the shame their unrealism requires: in a kingdom where truth rules in the mercy that is as absolute through His redemption, as truth itself, and all is in harmony (Psalm 85:10-11, Luke 9:26, Romans 5:1-11).

Indeed, it is through repentance and faith that one can appreciate that wonderful verse in Galatians 6:14:

• "GOD FORBID THAT I SHOULD GLORY EXCEPT IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST BY WHOM THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED TO ME AND I AM CRUCIFIED TO THE WORLD."

This is the way of it; but the opening day of it is this: Repent! And such repentance continues towards whatsoever is of sin. Yet as for its institution, it was seen on that day which dawned in the bloom of His reality, when began the incarnation of the Lord; and its effulgence, arising like light into a darkness which knew no end, this comes when the person repenting, believing and receiving Him as He is, actually becomes His, an inhabitant of everlasting light (Isaiah 60:20, Rev. 21:23).

Light then becomes delight, sin becomes abhorrent, not merely illicit but unwise and depraved, the very form of folly. Repentance engraves it on the stone provided, where its etching is inscribed, and its sting removed: in ONE DAY the cover made (Zechariah 3:9, John 19:30, Luke 23:43, I Thessalonians 5:9-10). THAT STONE, it is Christ! Here is the repentance not to be repented of, the release that realises, the life that cannot end (II Cor. 7:10, I John 3:9, 5:12-13). Small wonder John was so exuberant concerning these things (I John 1:1-4), words pouring out in splendid wonder, like a waterfall first topping the crest of the heights, after Winter rain.

Repentance is therefore a beautiful concept, and spells the step to the door of salvation itself, who is Jesus the Christ, who said,

"I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" -and this, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me: and I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish.." (from John 10:9,27-28).
 
 

Chapter One
On the Fundamental Reality of Repentance

The STATE OF EMERGENCY
 

Chapter Two

Repent or Perish 19-35

The STATE OF THE CASE

Chapter Three
The Tragedy,
The Victory and the Triumph ...
The STATE OF ISRAEL

The Crucible of the Middle East will not give a gentler heat till the crux of Christ's Cross is seen, not in wood or jewellery, but in the heart, transcribed from Calvary.
 

Chapter Four

The Depth, the Glory and the Grandeur

The STATE OF
THE PHILOSOPHIC WILDERNESS

Biological Bifurcation and
Religious Travesty

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Astonishing Astronomy and the

Celestial Consummation

THE STATE OF THE END
 

  Chapter Seven

THE STATE OF GRACE

  To this are added three Extensions,
which become Excursions
 

1. The State of the Data

2. The State of Mind and

3. The State of the Threshold.