"Baptist Bride" Asserted

The Apostle Paul tells us the following:

Romans 8:16, 17
16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

If we are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ what more can there be?

The Apostle John tells us the following:

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

It can't get any better than that.

OR :

 

If you really believe all the stuff you have written above you should be able to support it by Scripture. I would say that rather than rightly dividing you have either splintered or invented.

OR

 

Attention: Pluvivs and OldRegular

I hope you will be so kind as to go to my web page
wherein you will find all of the scriptural evidence you may care to read.

Pluvivs,

The quotes you have provided looks great when taken out of context but further study will reveal that there are conditions which bear upon whether the children of God, in reallity, inherit the reward of ruling from the kingdom of heaven and later ruling from New Jerusalem with Christ.

A prime example of this is in one of the scriptural quotes you yourself have provided.

[Romans 8:16, 17]
"if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together". That word 'if' is a very large word. It is a condition.

It paints the picture of dying to self every day in humbleness and obedience to Christ's commandments in such a way that Christ may so shine forth from us that others would always see Him in us and never see the vile creatures that we reveal ourselves to be on a daily basis.

The word 'if' is found throughout the New Testament and it is in great evidence in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 wherein Christ is warning the saved of what he is is going to expect from each saved individual [let him that hear]and ['if' thou overcome] at the judgment seat.

The other scripture you have provided [1 John 3:2]
is a description of the events surrounding the return of Christ at the end of the 'seven year tribulation period'. The key is the words
"when he shall appear".

Christ does not 'appear' at the rapture. On the other hand, every eye on earth will behold Christ's coming to do battle at Armageddon.
[Revelation 19:11-21]

Thank you for your responses and may the Lord bless and keep you.

You may visit my website for more reading and teaching on the kingdom truths at:
http://webpages.charter.net/ennisisland/ennisisland/

 

Without Studying the entire thread, I have to say that ALL believers will be part of the Bride of Christ. Yes we will be judged and rewarded or not as to our service but we are all part of the Body of Christ. The body is the Church and the Church is the bride. It is really that simple. Your rewards or lack of have nothing to do with whether you are part of the Bride or not.

 

Is the body of Christ the Church? YES!
Is the Church the bride of Christ? NO!

A bride or bridegroom is a person about to be married. The wedding is that event which brings them together as one and completes their relationship.

Metaphorically if the Church is the bride of Christ then their relationship is incomplete and cannot be united in love as one until the marriage. Having the Church as the bride means that Christians who died in the 1st century are still incomplete in Christ after almost 2,000 years. Those alive at the rapture would have to wait the duration of the Tribulation before they could be united with Christ at the wedding of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7). Having the church as a bride waiting to be married to be complete in Him contradicts the Word and our completeness in Him at the time of conversion. According to Rom. 8:30; we are predestined, called, justified and glorified before the creation of the world. Waiting for a marriage to consummate our relationship is not in God's plan for the Church, but is for Israel.

2 Cor. 11:1-3 NIV
Paul was addressing believers in this passage. He could not bear the thought that there might be any rival to Christ and his gospel. He desired to present them to Christ as a "pure virgin," which is a metaphor for the "pure devotion" in verse 3. "Pure virgin" is not a metaphor for bride, rather a call for us to remain spiritually pure by not accepting "a different spirit" or "a different gospel" (v.4).

The KJV has "simplicity that is in Christ," where as the NIV has, "pure devotion to Christ." The KJV rendering is awkward because "simplicity" is unrelated to our spiritual purity in Him and the context of this passage. The NIV has, "I have promised you one husband" and in the KJV as "I have espoused you to one husband." The KJV is awkward again; brides are not espoused to husbands, they are espoused to bridegrooms. This rendering is probably the major reason why believers think the Church is the bride of Christ yet no where else in the Bible is the Church considered the bride.

John 3:28-29
John the Baptist knew nothing about the Church or was he ever born again in Christ. If he was in the dark about the Church then he never would of identified the bride as the Church. The Church is not in the context of this passage, Israel is in view here. John was best man to Jesus the bridegroom and the disciples were guest of the bridegroom (Mt. 9:15). That leaves Israel as the bride of the bridegroom.

John's ministry was to prepare the way for Israel's Messiah who is the bridegroom of the bride. Jesus came to present the kingdom (engagement ring) to Israel, his bride, but was rejected by her. After the Church age and Israel's punishment in the Tribulation the bridegroom will return and marry the bride at the "wedding of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:7).

This is how I understand the relationships to be:

Yahweh's wife became unfaithful to him so her husband turned his back against Israel and hid his face. He has not rejected her outright, but will take her back and be restored in the Millennium.

Christ's bride rejected the kingdom so the bridegroom turned his back against Israel and hid his face. He has not rejected her outright, but will take her back and restore her in the Millennium.

Christ's wife, the Church, received the gospel by faith through the Holy Spirit and was rewarded eternal life by the husband. He will come back and catch up his wife to be with him forever in the Father's house.

In summation:

Yahweh is the husband and Israel is the wife.

Jesus is the bridegroom and Israel is the bride and saints are the guests of the bridegroom.

Jesus is the husband and the Church is the wife.

Eph. 5:22-33 compares a husband/wife relationship to be like Christ's relationship to the Church. No mention of a bridegroom or bride. The "profound mystery" is how "Christ and the Church" has become one as does the husband and wife become one flesh.

 

To: Prophecynut

Ye are the "Body of Christ" not the "Bride of Christ"

[2 Corinthians 5:17] Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

[Galatians 6:15] For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Why do you think God created a new creature to inherit the kingdom of heaven? Why couldn't God have used the Gentile? or what about the Jew? Let us consider these questions for a moment.

Up until the first advent of Christ there was really only two species of humans on the earth. The Gentile and the Jew. The Gentile, in God's eyes were disqualified because they were under Adam's curse [dead in sin and trespass].

But the Jew was different. The Jews were of the seed of Abraham and therefore the Jews were the natural choice to inherit the promise of Abrahams covenant [Genesis 17:5] and [Genesis 17:9].

Israel having been adopted as a Firstborn Son, [Exodus 4:22-23], was the one nation in the earth that could claim Abrahams inheritance through their Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The Word of God reveals that Israel rejected not only the earthly kingdom, at the first advent of Christ, but also the heavenly kingdom [the double portion of the inheritance due a firstborn son] when they had their Messiah crucified.

Then we read that a second offer was made to the nation of Israel during the book of Acts but when they rejected that offer God disqualified them [Acts 28:28] and took the offer to the Gentiles and any Jew that would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

If a person would believe with all their heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God they would be made a new creature in Christ. [2 Corinthians 5:17] and [Galatians 6:15]. This would qualify any person for the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom since the new creature is adopted into the family of God as a child of God.

But there is conditions for this new creature to adhere to just as there had been conditions for the Jews to adhere to.
 
The conditions for the Jews had been "repent and be baptized for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". You see, Israel had been disobedient to God for six hundred years. God had chosen them to establish a nation in the earth and introduce all of the Gentile nations to their God. But they disobeyed and so when the time of Christ's first advent came God called them to repentance before they could receive the heavenly or the earthly kingdoms.

The conditions for the new creature is very much like the conditions that were expected of the Jews. The new creature is expected to separate themselves from the world, worship no other God, love their brothers in Christ as they love themselves, and introduce the Jew and the Gentile to Christ so they can also become a new creature and thus a child of God as well.

The new creature is adopted into the family of God [the Church] and they are considered to be of the body of Christ until they are called out from the raptured body or assembly of the Saints [called out from the resurrection of the dead], [Philippians 3:11] at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
 
The body of those called out from the resurrected dead is the body of the bride and it will only be this body of believers that will inherit the reward of ruling and reigning in the Kingdom of Heaven [as king/priests or servant kings] with Christ for 1000 years [the Lords Day] and then go on from there to inherit the city of New Jerusalem in the new heavens and the new earth in eternity.

The Word of God states that the [church], during Man's Day, is considered to be the [Body of Christ].[1Corinthians 12:12] For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

[1Corinthians 12:27] Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

[Ephesians 5]
 
22   Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23   For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24   Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25   Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26   That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27   That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28   So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29   For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30   For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31   For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32   This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

[Colossians 1:24]

Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

That is right, the Church is the [Body of Christ], not the [Bride of Christ]. The saint can only become part of the [Bride of Christ] if they are found worthy at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
And we also know that the Word of God refers to Jesus, The Christ, as the [Last Adam]. This is very significant.

[1Corinthians 15:45]

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

We can know that this verse refers to Christ Jesus since the word [quickening] here in the Greek is [Zoopoieo] meaning: to produce alive, begat or bear living young to cause to live, make alive, give life by spiritual power to arouse and invigorate to restore to life to give increase of life: thus seeds quickened into life, i.e. germinating, springing up, growing

Jesus referred to this meaning [to restore to life] when he referred to raising Himself from the dead.

[Matthew 12:40]

For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

[Matthew 17:9]

And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

[Mark 9:9]

And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.

[John 2:19]

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
[Ephesians 4:8]

Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

[1 Thessalonians 4] 

4:14
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

4:15
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

4:16
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

So, now that we have established that Christ is the [Last Adam], let us take a moment to visit
the [First Adam] and his bride, for they are the [type] from which God patterned Christ's body [the church] and the body of Christ's bride.

These are those Christ calls "the overcomers", in Revelation 2 & 3 beginning in {Revelation 2:11}, or those called out from those already resurrected from the dead [previously raptured saints] at the Judgment Seat of Christ. [Philippians 3:11]  

Here is a mystery.

Why did God deliberately take the [bride] of the first Adam from the [body] of the first Adam?
Why did God not reach down and get another, separate handful of clay to create Eve?

The mystery is cleared up when we apply the rule of [types] and the rule of [first mention[ to this deliberate act of God.

This is a perfect example or type, of how God intends to remove the body of the [Bride of Christ] from the general assembly of believers, the Church, the [Body of Christ[, or the [Last Adam]. 

Man and woman were created as one body. Eve was taken from Adam's body and even though they were two separated bodies they were still one flesh since Adam's rib bone is what God used to create Eve.


[Genesis 2]
2:21
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
2:22
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
2:23
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
2:24

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh

Once God creates something it is created perfect in His eyes and for His purposes and it can't be made any more perfect. Once God creates something new, in a certain way, that is the way it will be created from then on. It does not change because God does not create anything imperfect. 

Therefore, since Eve came from the first Adam's body, the Bride of Christ will come from the last Adam's body [the general assembly of the saints] after the rapture and at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Thank you for your responses and may the Lord bless and keep you.

You may visit my website for more reading and teaching on the kingdom truths at:
http://webpages.charter.net/ennisisland/ennisisland/