Herbert W Armstrong

Plain Truth Staff  

   "We were so happy to read about the new, fully illustrated lessons of the Bible Correspondence Course. But what should I do? I'm already an advanced student of the Correspondence Course. Should I enroll again to receive these new lessons?"

   We are already receiving a big response to Mr. Armstrong's announcement of the newly illustrated Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course!
   Correspondence Course enrollment is already at an ALL-TIME HIGH! Over SEVENTY THOUSAND students worldwide now receive a total of FORTY LESSONS AND TEN TESTS (the number thus far printed)!
   Now for the first time in the history of the Correspondence Course we are able to fully illustrate each lesson with up-to-date photographs, maps and study charts.
   But the addition of these new features does not mean the lessons themselves will be essentially changed.
   This is not a new, different course. It is the same course newly illustrated.
   Each lesson will still carry the step-by-step study of your Bible so many thousands have come to depend upon as a guide.
   If you are already enrolled and receiving lessons of the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course YOU SHOULD NOT RE-ENROLL! If you did you would merely be starting over — you would actually lose the time advantage you have gained by the lessons you have already received!
   Those who have been receiving Correspondence Course lessons have had the opportunity of learning the PLAIN TRUTHS of their Bibles FAR AHEAD of those who are only now just beginning. In some cases — TEN FULL YEARS — ahead of new students.
   Those already enrolled have the additional blessing of learning things that were a mystery to Daniel and David — things the Apostle Paul understood only "through a glass, darkly...!"
   We would like to be able to send each and every one of our older students a copy of each lesson as it is re-done in picture form. We know you would like to have them, but we just cannot do it.
   The expense involved would total considerably more than a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS! The additional man-hours of time involved in such an operation would be equally staggering.
   But we do have GOOD NEWS for Correspondence Course students!
   Though Lessons One, Two, Three and so forth are being prepared for enrolling students in the illustrated form, other lessons are also being illustrated. Students who are up-to-date with the — most advanced class have already received Lesson 40 in the new illustrated style. They will continue to receive the new illustrated lessons Forty-One, Forty-Two, etc.
   Still greater efforts are being made to be sure all Correspondence Course students will receive the newly illustrated lessons as soon as possible.
   In addition to illustrating the lessons forward from Lesson One, and continuing to work forward from Lesson Forty, plans are already under way to work backward, adding pictures, maps and charts to Lessons Thirty-Nine, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Seven and continuing until ALL THE LESSONS will be illustrated in only HALF THE TIME NORMALLY REQUIRED!
   But, wherever you are, DON'T LAG BEHIND in your own study NOW. KEEP UP THE PACE!
   Time is very short indeed!

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"Do Christians go to heaven when they die? What did Jesus mean when He said, "...great is your reward in heaven"?

   The common assumption today is that heaven is the reward of the saved. Yet most professing Christians have never looked into the Bible to see what Jesus said about the reward of the saved.
   What did Jesus mean when He told His disciples to rejoice when men persecute them, "and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you'" (Mat. 5:12.)
   And why — only a few verses before — did Christ say, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth?"
   Do some of the saved — "the persecuted" — go to heaven to collect their reward, while others — "the meek" — inherit the earth? Or did Jesus Christ contradict Himself in His very next breath?
   CERTAINLY NOT!
   Let the Bible itself explain the answer.
   Notice what the apostle Peter was inspired to write in your Bible: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, that fadeth not away, RESERVED IN HEAVEN for you" (I Pet. 1:3-4).
   Notice it! The reward of the saved the inheritance of true Christians — is RESERVED in heaven. That is where it is kept at this present time. The reward is reserved in heaven — it is not heaven itself!
   But do Christians go to heaven to receive their reward? Jesus Christ explained it in the Book of Revelation: "And behold, I come quickly, and my reward IS WITH ME, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Rev. 22:12). When Christ returns from heaven the second time He will bring the reward of the saved with Him! Though now temporarily reserved in heaven, Jesus will bring the reward to this earth!
   Jesus explained it further in the parable of the young nobleman who went to a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to RETURN (Luke 19:12). Christ went up into heaven to receive His Kingdom from the Father (Dan. 7:13-14), and at the end of the present AGE He will RETURN. At His second coming He will return to earth and REWARD His true servants according to how much they have overcome their sins and produced the fruit of obedience (Luke 19:13-19).
   But what is included in the reward of the saved?
   For one thing, rulership over the earth! When He returns Jesus will say "Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou AUTHORITY over ten cities" (verses 17, 19).
   How clear! Jesus did not say Christians will inherit their reward IN heaven. Rather, the reward — authority, an office of power in the Kingdom of God — is being temporarily RESERVED in heaven because that is where Jesus is. But it will be brought to the earth, where Jesus will reward His saints, in the Kingdom of God, with positions of RULERSHIP and authority over the nations! Jesus said in His sample prayer: "Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
   Now read this: "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the NATIONS: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron... " (Rev. 2:26-27).
   The prophet Daniel was also inspired to write, "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the king. dam UNDER the whole heaven, shalt be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him" (Dan. 7:27).
   If you have not read it, read immediately for the free article, "What is the Reward of the Saved — Heaven?" And the astounding, eye-opening article "What is the Place Jesus Is Preparing?" These free articles make the truth plain.

Plain Truth Magazine

June 1965

Vol XXX, No.6