trading places - how the gospel works

8/14/2019 Trading Places - How the Gospel Works

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Trading PlacesHow the Gospel Works

Dane Smith Toffler


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Trading Places

How the Gospel Works


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Preface

Once I had completed the three-booklet series on the EverlastingGospel: The LORD Our Righteousness, The Shaking and the Sealing

and A Primitive Religion, I was asked if I could simplify the mes-sage for those who had never read the Bible or been a churchmember. That is the purpose of this little volume. I will explainthe simple side of the Gospel. Rather than quote Scripture afterScripture, I will just explain the process in my own words usingmodern English. For those that want to see the Scripture basisfor what I say here, I refer them to the previous small trilogywhich is more than adequate for that purpose.

Dane Toffler

Linden, Virginia November 2007

Contents copyright 2007 by Dane Smith Toffler


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One of the dissimilarities between The Prince and the Pauperand the Gospel is that in Twains book there was a onefor one correspondence between the two boys, unlike the

Gospel which is a one to many correspondence. Christneeded to exchange places with many people, not just

one.

To set up His side of the exchange, He chose to stepdown from His place in heaven by the Father and become

one with the human race. In that miracle called the Incar-

nation, He was clothed with a body that not only repre-sented humanity, it was, in fact, all humanity. His hu-manity was descended through His mother in a clear line

of ancestry that threaded all the way back to our firstparents, Adam and Eve.

In Adam, genetically, was all mankind and in Christ his

descendant was the same genetic blueprint. But, Christwas born also of the Holy Spirit, having but one human

parent. Therefore He was both divinity and humanitycombined. He is called the last Adam because He was a

new beginning for a humanity that had been lost throughsin.

Who Should Be Punished?The beggar boy, Tom Canty, of Twains classic fiction,

had been used to receiving whippings and beatings on hisown back for all his real and presumed wrongs. But, in

his turn as the prince, he is told by his protectors that he


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has a whipping boy, a child that will receive lashings

instead of his own royal person. This both amazes andrevolts young Tom. He feels that he should receive his

own discipline, that it should not fall on the back of an-other boy.

In the Gospel, Christ is punished for our sins. He has

taken our place, become our whipping boy.

What is Sin?

Let us digress for a moment and look at this subject ofsin. What exactly is sin? Are there big sins and little

ones? Did Christ suffer for the little ones as well as thebig ones? Are there gray areas which are not really classi-

fied as either good acts or sinful acts?

The word sin and the concept of sin both come from the

Bible, which can be used as sort of a moral yardstick tomeasure sins or goodness. To begin with lets call sinswrong-doing and lets call goodness right-doing.

The Bible presents ten laws known as the command-

ments, which can be looked at either positively or nega-tively. The positive view says that the person who be-

lieves in God will be kept from breaking these ten laws.The negative view says that the person who doesnt be-

lieve is forbidden to do the things that the law mentions.


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For example, the sixth commandment is You shall not

kill. A believer would be kept from killing by the powerof God, the unbeliever would be forbidden to kill.

The Bible gives three definitions of sin that are to be

taken as three parts of a complete description of theproblem:

Sin is a breaking of the Law: a breaking of one, some or

all of the ten commandments.

All unrighteousness is sin: everything that cannot beclassed as right-doing is wrong.

Anything that is not of faith is sin: any act done outside

the context of ones belief in God, trust in Him and obe-dience to Him is wrong.

As we look at this complete definition of the problem, it

seems daunting, for it seems that nearly everything can beclassed as sin. If we consider the last point of the defini-

tion, it seems that only a true believer has any chance ofmeeting the requirement of not sinning. The problemseems blown out of proportion.

But what is it that makes us feel that the definition of sin

is blown out of proportion? Why do we feel that thereshould be more lee-way, more room for differences of

opinion regarding what is right and what is wrong?


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What is Iniquity?

The Bible also defines something called iniquity. Iniquity

is where sin begins. It is the desire to serve self. It is theresistance to being restricted. It is the need to be in charge

of ones own life. The Bible says we are born this wayand that it just gets worse as we grow older.

How were we born this way? Arent babies innocent?

The Bible tells the story about Adam and Eve being cre-ated without sin, but that later on they chose to sin

which changed them genetically. This penchant for loveof self and sinning would be passed on to all their de-

scendants.

It has been thousands of years since the Garden of Edenstory and mankind has begun to think of selfishness and

sinfulness as being part of what is called normal. We

consider it normal to be a little selfish, we consider itnormal to not do everything right. We resist the notion ofbeing good all the time. We are afraid we wont have any

fun or pleasure at all if we dont occasionally do what theBible calls sin.

So, our over-familiarity with sin has caused us to over-

look some sin, especially those sins we think of as littleones or fun ones or pleasurable ones. We dont like the

idea of having to give up these normal traits. We pointout that many people, if not most people, think the same

way that we do. Since ours is therefore the majority


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opinion, the Bible and Christians should step aside and

stop trying to measure everything with that moral yard-stick. That moral yardstick would only matter if I be-

lieved in it, anyway.

Churches have dealt with this problem by making lessand less restrictions on their members. Churches used to

be more strict, but found that the stricter the rules, thefewer the members. Many churches today allow people

to do things classified in the Bible as sin. These churches

consider themselves forward-thinking and consider thechanges to be for the better of mankind because they aremore accepting of todays peoples choices than the

churches of the past.

Another way that churches have dealt with the sin prob-lem is by dividing the people into two groups: the clergy

and the laity. The clergy are the priests, the nuns, the pas-tors and ministers. These folk must truly dedicate them-

selves to God and they must follow all the rules. Thelaity are the people that attend church, sit in the pews

and listen to the clergy. These folk are not required to beas holy or as dedicated as the clergy. They need not con-

cern themselves with crossing every t or dotting every

i.

Sin has become so common that it is simply taught that

as often as you sin, you ask the Lord to forgive you. It


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doesnt matter how much you sin as long as you ask for

forgiveness.

The Bible teaches that sin is to be a rarity rather thancommonplace. In fact, for the most part, sin done in igno-

rance is supposed to be the only kind done. Pre-meditatedsin is considered to be the worst kind of rebellion.

What is the Solution?

God knew beforehand that sin would become the great

problem that it has become. Therefore, a plan was madein heaven long before men and women were created. It

was decided that Christ would die for the sins of all hu-manity. It was also decided that in addition to Him being

our substitute, He would also give us the power to claimHis sinlessness as our own, a reverse substitution, if you

will.

But, when people decide that they need to change becausethey feel guilty about their past or current behavior, their

first attempt, usually, is to try to address their problemsthrough the force of will power. They endeavor to fix

themselves. Some folk, who have will power even makesmall or great changes in their lives, but the vast majority

have not that type of will power, so they fail in their at-tempts. Some seek to work with organizations or work

with self-help books to see if they can succeed in theselifestyle changes. Some, that can afford it, get psychiatric

help. Some get doctors to prescribe drugs to help them


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cope better with life. Some experiment with drugs or al-

cohol to forget their problems. Some become workaholicsor start practicing transcendental meditation.

A great number of people start attending church in their

attempt to set things straight in their lives. They get in-troduced to the idea of going to God in prayer and asking

His help and asking His forgiveness for their behavior.Some get better, but some do not. For many, even church

is just a temporary fix and they find themselves leaving

the church and going back to a more comfortable,worldly life. For these people, church wasnt a good fit.They werent ever able to cope with the rigors of being

churched.

None of these solutions for sin happen to be the solutionproposed by God. God proposes a solution that will

work for everyone and one that is easy to accomplish andeasy to maintain. The plan is so simple that a small child

can understand it and it is a plan for men and womenand seniors and children of all races and ethnic back-

grounds. It doesnt matter how much you have sinned orare continuing to sin. It is free of charge, it has already

been paid for.

The King Inside

In Twains book, King Henry VIII dies, elevating his sonEdward to the throne. Tom Canty, the beggars son, who

was already mistaken for the prince, is now headed for


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coronation as Edward VI. The real Edward, who has been

mistaken for a pauper, hears the news of his fathersdeath, but no one will believe that he is the real heir to

the throne. Both boys must now find the King insidethemselves that will allow them to cope with the for-

tunes of the life they find themselves dealing with.

Edward must not fall in with the villainous crowd thatsurrounds him, he must at heart remain a king, loyal to

the law and his subjects. Tom must rise above his up-

bringing because he is being asked to properly rule acountry in an age when laws have become unfair androyalty has become self-indulgent to an extreme.

Many Christians are aware that the ideal for their Chris-

tianity would be for Christ to dwell in their hearts.Many outside the church long to have a right spirit

within them. Both groups realize that the heart is whereit starts. Others feel that it is more important to look the

part, that clothes or belongings make the greatest differ-ence in a man or woman.

Inside the King

The Gospel teaches that not only must Christ dwell

within us, it also teaches that we must dwell withinHim. It suggests that only this trading of places accom-

plishes what God intended. The good news makes thisexchange possible.


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Many churches teach that you must be born-again, that

you must be born of the Spirit in order to please God.But, many of these same churches neglect to define the

whole process as illustrated by the Bible. They do explainthat baptism, either by sprinkling or immersion, is neces-

sary to begin the process. Some say that baptism is, itself,the whole process. Some other churches declare that

baptism is a sort of death or that it symbolizes a deaththat is followed by the born-again experience. But some

only consider baptism as the formal entrance into churchmembership.

In reality, although there is some symbolism in the rite of

baptism, it also contains some very important literalimplications for the believer.

Baptism connects a believer with what Christ did at His

baptism and at His crucifixion. Christ was baptized notbecause He was a sinner, but to enable all believers to ob-

tain His righteousness at their own baptisms. He wascrucified not only to be our substitute in taking our sins

to the cross in His own body, but to enable believers totake His death as their own.

On a number of occasions, Christ spoke to His disciplesabout the necessity of abiding in Him, so that He couldabide in them. Abiding somewhere is like dwelling

somewhere. He was declaring that they were to spiritu-


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ally dwell in Him and that He would then spiritually

dwell in them.

He used the figure of a vine and its branches to help thedisciples picture this relationship. He pointed out that

unless a branch abides in the vine it has no life. But if thebranch does abide in the vine then the life of the vine

abides in the branch. He said He is the vine and we arethe branches.

Trading Places

But it is a physical impossibility for me to physically live

in someone else just as it is a physical impossibility forsomeone else to live in me. Therefore it is necessary to

understand that a person exists on two levels: a physicallevel and a spiritual level. The Bible calls these two the

outer man and the inner man. One exists on the physical

plane and the other exists only spiritually. Where thephysical part of a person cannot change places, the Biblesays the spiritual part can.

Christ explained to the disciples that His relationship

with His Father was spiritually the same, in that He said,I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. So, just as

Christ is in the Father, so we are to be in Christ and justas the Father is in Christ, so Christ is to be in us.

Christ teaches that this is so that we can all be one spiri-

tually: The Father is in Christ who is in us and we are in


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ceive the two tablets with the written law of God. In the

meanwhile, the people grew anxious because Moses hadbeen gone so long and they decided Moses wasnt coming

back. Consequently, they convinced Moses brotherAaron to take their golden ornaments and make them into

a golden calf so they could worship an idol like theEgyptians did. Therefore, in a little over a month, the

people decided to break the corporate promises they hadmade to God. Not only did they break their promises

they also broke the commandments.

Even though the two collections of books in the Bible arecalled the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, the Old

Covenant was itself the broken promise of the people re-ferred to in the above paragraphs. The New Covenant

was instituted at the time when the second copy of thetablets of Law was made by God for the Israelites. This

New Covenant was to be based on the promises of Godinstead of the promises of the people. The collection of

books called the New Covenant explains how people areto respond to its promises.

Many today call the New Covenant and the Old

Covenant the New Testament and the Old Testament, re-

spectively. Both words, covenant and testament, are littleused in todays speech. Both words convey the notion ofa formal agreement, in this case agreements that require

blood to be shed to ratify the agreement. For the OldCovenant or Testament, the blood shed was that of ani-


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mals. For the New Covenant or Testament, the blood

shed was that of Christ.

Since blood was shed to ratify these agreements, if a per-son does not keep the covenant their own life is forfeit. In

the Old Covenant, a person would have to die for theirown sin if there was no animal sacrifice. In the New

Covenant, if a person does not fully except Christs deathon their behalf, their own life must be relinquished.

Is the Law Unfair?

In Mark Twains book, both boys, the mistaken king

and the mistaken pauper, had to deal with the unfair lawsthat had been instituted by Henry the Eighth. People

were beaten, made to stand in pillories for days, had theirears or fingers cut off, were accused of witchcraft, had

their lands taken from them and frequently their lives

were required for simply disappointing the King. Thelaws themselves were whimsical based on lies, gossip andsuperstition. Much was taken from the poor to enrich the

wealthy or entitled classes. Even children were subjectedto these horrible punishments. Each of the boys was able

to see, because of their own youth and innocence, that

these edicts and laws were grossly unfair.Tom Canty, the supposed King, used his opportunity to

stop many of these judgments in their tracks. Edward theSixth, the supposed pauper, fought valiantly to save as

many as he could from the gallows or worse, making


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promises to many that when he regained his throne, he

would reverse their fortunes.

The commandments of God are not unfair. They are in-tended to give all people the fairest treatment possible.

None of the laws are either whimsical or unjust. The richand the poor must abide by the same set of laws, with

neither group gaining an unfair advantage. If these lawswere kept no one would be murdered or stolen from. No

one would be lied to or dishonored. All would be con-

tent with what they had not desiring more. All would befaithful, to each other and to God. Love to God wouldreign supreme, with love for one another running a close

second.

Let us now see how the keeping of the law, surrenderingto God and the losing of ones life in order to save it are

interwoven in the tapestry of the Gospel.What Happened 2000 Years Ago?

The Bible prophesied that when the Messiah was bornHe would be called Immanuel. This word Immanuel is

not a name but a title, like the words Messiah and Christ.Messiah and Christ are the Hebrew and Greek words for

anointed. Immanuel is Hebrew for God with us or God in us.

As stated before Christ took the nature of all humanityupon him like a tent. He then took that tent of our hu-


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manity to the cross and the Bible says that when He died,

all humanity died.

Consequently, His death on the cross was not a simplesubstitution like the animal sacrifices of the Old

Covenant. In those sacrifices the sinner would place hishands on the head of the sacrificial animal signifying the

transference of his sin to the animal. The animal wouldthen be slain and the blood of the sacrifice would be

sprinkled on the Sanctuary, signifying the transference of

the sin to the Sanctuary. In these types from the OldCovenant Sanctuary service, both the animal and theSanctuary were types of Christ. Type is used here in the

sense of place-holder. Until the birth of Immanuel thesetypes would point forward to the salvation that He

would achieve.

The Bible teaches that Christ bore the sins of humanityto the cross with Him. It also teaches that in that death

on the cross Christ was victorious over the sins of hu-manity. The sinless had died for the sinner. The Creator

had died for the creature.

In addition to being victorious over the sins of humanity

by taking them to His cross, Christ was also victoriousover death, because three days after He was crucified, Hearose from the dead at His resurrection. He brought hu-

manity back from the dead.


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But this all occurred nearly 2000 years ago. The Scrip-

tures teach that the plan included a way for each individ-ual believer to harness what happened at the crucifixion

and the resurrection.

What Happens Today?

When Christ was baptized He opened a door for all be-

lievers to enter. When they would be baptized theywould be connected in reality to what happened two

millennia ago. His death would become their death and

His life would become their life.

Therefore, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christwere promises of victory to believers. At baptism, believ-

ers begin the journey of claiming the promises of Christfor their salvation, for their victory over sin and death.

As was mentioned before, a person cannot really surren-der entirely themselves because something must remainto do the surrender. In the Gospel, the full surrender is

accomplished by trusting the promise contained inChrists death at ones baptism. The power of this

promise is such that it accomplishes the surrenderthrough Christs death and not via the will of the be-

liever.

This trust in the death of Christ also allows believers tolose their lives in order to save their lives. It also accom-

plishes that thing called dwelling or abiding in Christ, for


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the Scriptures state that if you are dead by faith in His

promises, you are also hidden in Him in the same manneras He is hidden in God.

Therefore, even though you could not empty self of self

by an act of the will, the promise of Christ has done sothrough making you dead and hidden in Christ.

This leaves the tent of your humanity empty, such that

Christ is free to dwell within you unencumbered byhaving to share the space with your self which has been

hidden in Christ. The exchange has been accomplishedby faith in His promises. You are abiding in Him while

He is abiding in you. You are dwelling in His tent whileHe dwells in your tent, so to speak.

This exchange accomplishes many things. By dwelling in

His tent, you are considered right-doing because He who

covers you is right-doing. Because you are dead by thistransaction, it is not your right-doing, but His.

On the other side of the exchange, since He dwells in youthat has been emptied of self, your actions give way to

His actions. He works through you in a holy way thatyou could never accomplish yourself before the exchange.

His life has become yours just as His death has becomeyours. You are animated by His will, not your own will.

Since He is able to perfectly keep the commandments, Hewill now keep those commandments for you from

within you.


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To look at this more fully, you must understand that the

self that has died by the promise of God was what youinherited from Adam. The life you have inherited

through the exchange is from Christ who is the secondAdam. You have by faith leapt from the old mankind to

the new mankind. You have been born-again, you are anew kind of being, different from before. Before you

were full of self, now you are filled with Christs life.You have gone from death to life, you have by faith in

Gods promises, transcended ordinary humanity. Youare now internally akin to Christ instead of Adam.

But, externally, you are still akin to Adam, so you are not

yet perfect. For this reason you must die daily. This giftof the exchanged life must be renewed by faith every day.

Baptism started the process, but renewed faith in thepromises day by day keeps the process going. Freshly

each day you must trust the promise of Christs crucifix-ion and resurrection. As you trust in these promises

daily, Christ keeps His promises and makes you hiddenin Him and makes Himself hidden in you. As you trust

Him, so are you saved from day to day.

How Does a Lifetime of Behavior Change?

When the little boys in The Prince and the Pauper were firstmistaken for each other, their former acquaintances de-

cided that the boy they had formerly known had gonemad. Each group thought the boy in their midst had lost


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his mind, because the alleged prince thought he was a

beggars son and the alleged pauper thought himself to beheir to the throne. Tom Canty had always dreamed of

someday being considered noble, and Edward had longedto be a normal boy playing with normal friends. But,

when they found themselves in new surroundings, theyrealized that what they had dreamed and longed for was

not exactly as they had imagined.

Lifes experiences do not always prepare us well for the

future. Experience does not always lead us to making theright decisions. Life, as we know it, is full of misinfor-mation. For instance, we are told from the time we are

toddlers that we must become self-sufficient. No one willdo it for you, we are told. Even in a church atmosphere

we are sometimes told that God wont help us unless wemake an effort of our own first.

Psychiatry and many other disciplines teach us that we

must have good or high self-esteem to be productive andhappy. We are told that inside we are really good and

shiny and it is just that the outside has become tarnishedby our bad experiences. We must rise above our circum-

stances and try harder to succeed.

A lifetime of believing these and other similar notionscreates in us the idea of being our own boss or master.

These practices become so important that we are uneasyand reluctant to turn them aside when we hear the good


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news of the Gospel. The idea of giving up control to

God does not come easily. It feels wrong.

All our life we have been making plans, not realizing thatGod had plans for us already. We are used to planning

our own time. We have gotten used to the idea of havingat least some things being our choice whether they will

be accomplished now, later or never. Even most religiouspeople divide their time between attention paid to God

and attention paid to self, family or job.

The concept of being holy one hundred percent of thetime is foreign to us. We believe at least some of our time

should be devoted to personal pursuits. We believe thatwe wont even be happy unless we can have some things

our way instead of Gods way.

Many people have hobbies or are enthusiasts of some

kind. Some follow sports or television or the arts or the-ater. Some regularly attend events of some kind that havenothing to do with religion. Some are deeply invested in

these pursuits.

Some read magazines or fiction or play cards and othergames. Some sit around with friends telling jokes and just

generally having fun. These pastimes have become part ofwho we are and we dont see anything wrong with con-

tinuing them even if we become religious. The assump-tion is that God wont have any problem with these pur-


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suits because they are just harmless, enjoyable ways to

pass the time.

As many consider the Gospel lifestyle for the first time,they see much that they are not comfortable with. They

become aware that some of the practices they have hadfor years are now questionable at best. They see that it is

not necessarily the practice itself that is sinful, but thechoice to do the practice outside of their faith relation-

ship with Christ that is suspect. Christ expects complete

submission to His will. He is not pleased with our desireto do things without His permission. Many see this as ahardship.

The Rock in our Path

It is here that many will stumble at the Gospel as if it

were a rock in their path. They feel that they would be

fine with the Gospel if they could still have a few thingsgo their way. They are not willing to give up all forChrist.

I hasten to remind the reader that He gave up all for you.

In the Gospel plan the individual believer is to see them-selves as being part of the body of Christ with Him as

the head of that body. Instead of remaining individualswe are now part of a whole. As the organs of a human

body do not have a life of their own apart from the bodyand must work with the other organs to maintain the

body, so should we see ourselves. We must work to-


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gether with the other members of the body of Christ to

serve Christs will together.

Christ knows our needs and He will lovingly see thatthose needs are met. He will give us time with our friends

and family. He will give us opportunities to recreate. Hemay, in fact, let us do many of the things we like within

the framework of His will. The only real difference,much of the time, will be that He picks when and where

and for how long we do these things. We look to Him

and not to self for guidance.

God is not a tyrant and we should not view Him as such.

He is a loving, caring master and we are His faithful ser-vants. He has given His life for us and now we surrender

our lives to Him. He has already done for us what Heasks us to do.

Let us not forget that the Gospel makes this service toGod very easy. As part of the plan, we are made dead sothat we will not clamor for what we desire. Because we

inherit His life we also inherit His likes and dislikes.From within the Gospel, abiding in Him and He in us,

the whole plan makes sense and works beautifully. It

only looks odd from outside the Gospel looking in. Weare judging the book by its cover when we would be bet-ter judges of its content by reading and experiencing the

book.


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The Great Seal

As The Prince and the Pauper comes to its end, the corona-

tion of the King is the focal point. Tom Canty must soonbe crowned as king because the real Edward has yet to be

found. Tom has learned his part well, maybe too well, ashe has learned to enjoy being rich and attended by others.

He is nervous about becoming truly king, but he sees noway around it.

Edward himself has had one too many adventures trying

to get back to London. He has acquired a good friend andprotector in Miles Hendon, once a noble in the court, but

now disinherited by his evil older brother. With Mileshelp Edward finally reaches London and interrupts the

coronation just as Tom Canty is about to be crownedKing of England.

Tom is overjoyed to see Edward and is more than readyto just go back and be himself. But Edward is questionedby those assembled to determine if he is an impostor. The

last question has to do with the location of the Great Sealwhich was lost at about the same time the boys traded

places. Tom has been questioned for months regarding its

location, but has no knowledge of its whereabouts. Ed-ward is sure he knows where it is, but when the locationis checked, the Great Seal is nowhere to be found. At this

point the boys must work together to determine its loca-tion.


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The Sealing

As the end of time grows nearer, whether or not a person

has received the Gospel becomes more and more impor-tant. God intends to interrupt the course that evil has

taken in this world. He intends to save those that haveaccepted His Gospel. Christ will come a second time to

Earth to deliver His people.

Towards the end, God begins a process of placing a sealon all those that believe in His power to save them from

sin. The seal is given to those that have settled into thetruth of the Gospel. As many have never heard the Good

News, a great effort is made by Gods people to tell thewhole world about the promises of the King. But, God

has an enemy, an angel once called Lucifer, now referredto as Satan, which means adversary.

Satan has worked very hard for thousands of years toconfuse and misinform the people on the planet. He hastold great and complicated lies to make people feel that

there is no God and that there is no salvation. He hasconvinced folk that they are better off taking care of

themselves and being self-sufficient. He has encouraged

people to seek riches and status and the admiration ofothers. He has fostered pride and greed. He has most ofthe world convinced that there was no creation, that all

have evolved from simple life forms after millions ofyears. He has done this so that most people will not be-


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lieve that there are any moral absolutes, that they are free

to have their own opinions about right and wrong. Andhe has been very successful. He has made it so that most

people are not even interested in being religious, muchless devoted to God.

During this end time he will encourage folk to persecute

Gods people, to make the spreading of the Gospel diffi-cult.

The people of the Earth will become divided over the

Gospel. The greater number of people will band togetherto stop the progress of the Gospel, but those that believe

the Gospel will act as one, with miracles attending themto show the world the truth that God is real and that He

is a loving God who has a plan to save everyone.

During this time the world will be convulsed with

earthquakes, tempests, hurricanes, tsunamis and the like.There will be mass confusion among the people of theworld. But those that carry the Gospel message will not

be deterred, and thousands will be converted every day.

Very close to the end, a time comes when God seals thefate of every person on earth. Those that have accepted

the Gospel are now confirmed in their right-doing andthey will never do wrong again. Those that have rejected

the Gospel are now confirmed in their wrong-doing andthey will never do right again.


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How the Story Ends

At the end of Mark Twains book, the Great Seal is

found, Edward is made King and he rewards both Tomand Miles for their service to the country. He pardons the

folk that he had met on his travels as a vagabond. Herights the wrongs that he saw. Those evil people that he

met along the way are punished for their evil and landsand belongings are returned to their rightful owners.

At the end of time, at the second coming, Christ delivers

His people from a world gone wrong. Those that haddied believing in His good news are resurrected from the

dead and are taken into the air to meet Him as He arrivesin the clouds surrounded by the angels of heaven. Then

His people that are alive and remaining on the Earth arealso taken up into the air to be with Him. In one vast

miracle all the saved are given new bodies to replace theones that had been tainted with sin. Now they are perfect

externally as well as internally. These all go with Himback to heaven.

Those wicked people that would not be saved, that had

pleasure in wrong-doing are destroyed by the brightness

of the same event that saved those that were right-doing.The Gospel is triumphant! God has kept His promises!


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