SAVED AS OPPOSED TO SAFE

KEY VERSES: He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered. (Prov 28:25), and Whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. (Prov 29:25b)

  Those two verses clear up the Jewish dilemma! They thought prosperity was the Promise Land and an Epicurean life-style in that Canaan was a land of milk and honey: “Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey’” (Deut 6:30). That was one item of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Hebrews thought that God was delivering them to Utopia – an imaginary place made real – “a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions” (Merriam-Webster Dict.).
  They soon found out that that was not the case: “Moreover you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards” (Num 16:14). They misunderstand the “when” but only knew the “where.”
  Moses was accused of lying, and as such, so was God! Did they ever consider that they were just mistaken in their perception? Was God giving them a good land, or was it something else? Were they to materially prosper, or did God mean something that only Moses knew?
  Those who misunderstood “prosperity” had it reinforced many times, but they still did not understand! “We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. Therefore, keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do” (Deut 29:8-9).
  Of course, they did inherit the land of milk and honey, but although it was a Paradise when it was a mere Garden, mankind contaminated the solace there and the paradise of the Promised Land has always been contentious and the center of war, not Peace!
  Unknown to the Hebrews, they were returning to Paradise – back to the Garden. When Enoch was translated to the Third Heaven, what did he see? “And two springs come out which send forth honey and milk, and their springs send forth oil and wine, and they separate into four parts, and go round with quiet course, and go down into the PARADISE OF EDEN, between corruptibility and in corruptibility” (Secrets of Enoch 8:6). Not only did Enoch see the Garden Paradise, but he saw it in Heaven! Perhaps, just as Jesus ascended when his purpose was finished, that the Garden Paradise translated into Heaven when it became vacant.
  What were the Hebrews to find? The foundation of the Garden was all that remained. The Garden was a place of Peace – the abode of God – and Jerusalem means “foundation of peace.” Validation is that “Jordan River” in Hebrew is “Nahar ha-Yarden” – the River of the Garden!

The Hebrews thought “prosperity” was in Canaan. Abraham and Moses knew that prosperity was in Heaven. The promise is that twelve-thousand of each of the twelve tribes of Israel will inherit the earth (Rev 21:12; Rev 14:1).
  Who will prosper? “He who trusts in the Lord will be prospered.” Trusting in the Lord rather than oneself. Jesus said that a little differently: “The meek shall inherit the earth” (Mat 5:5). Jews would believe that to be Israel. “Earth” as translated from the Hebrew also means “soil.” The meek are those who trust the Lord for safety and preservation. It would seem to them that would be the “soil” of Canaan, which they indeed came to own. However, a translation of those who trust the Lord, as with Enoch and Jesus, will occur. Whereas Enoch and Jesus were translated into the heavens (with no soil), the City of God will be translated from the Paradise in the Third Heaven back to its foundation IN Earth, and renamed “New Jerusalem” (Rev 21).
  “Prosperity” then, will not be the soil or land of Canaan, but a return to Paradise when Heaven returns to its foundation.
  Of course, direction has no utility since the Earth is spherical. I believe that Paradise and Israel co-exist at the present – one seen and the other unseen! Jesus, at the end of the day, told the repentant thief on his cross, ““Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Like 23:43). No time was taken to travel to Heaven. They were there already; it just could not be seen!
  We also know that Jesus went two places when his death was finished: (1) His body to the tomb (in earth), and (2) his Holy Ghost to Hell (in heaven (invisible realm) – not THE Heaven – wherein Jesus delivered all the sins of mankind.
  Jesus’s flesh went nowhere, and it seems that his Ghost merely existed in the unseen realm. From the story or Lazarus and the rich man, Hell and Heaven (Abraham’s Bosom) exist at the same place, of course separated by a great gulf (Luke 16:26). Not only is there a barrier between Hell and Heaven, but perhaps a “great gulf” between the Earth and Heaven that can only be crossed with death.
  No one, it seems, will “go to Hell” but upon death will immediately exist in Hell. Not that Hell is on Earth, but it co-exists in another realm co-existing with matter. Jews believe the invisible realm of Hell is in the center of the Earth and its “door” is the Foundation Stone beneath the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. That makes sense, since it is the threshing floor of Ornan where the chaff (the unrepentant) was winnowed into the abyss beneath the threshing stone.
  Now back to the key verses: Trusting the Lord gains prosperity, but trusting the Lord brings safety. The Arminian viewpoint is that those who are born-again live in safety because they trust the Lord. That is validated by the key verses. Safety is a protective “hedge” (Job 1) with which God surrounds the faithful. The Wall of Old Jerusalem was safety for the Hebrews. God was there in His Temple. On the other hand, God is with us wherever we may travel as Christians are His Temple. He is our safety until those who trust Him are saved from the Devil and the Air of the World, as Satan is Prince of the Power of the Air (Ephes 2:2).
  There is a huge difference between “safe” and “saved.” The former is present tense and the latter past tense. Those who trust Jesus are presently safe, and will be saved if they endure (trust) to the end (Mat 10:22). The reward is in Heaven where there is truly milk and honey, not in Israel where there is only strife. The average Hebrew did not understand that, and most still do not!
  The Hebrews were safe in the Kingdom of David as long as they trusted in the Lord. Firstly, the northern kingdom, although kept safe, finally perished because they failed to endure in trusting the Lord. The southern kingdom endured a little longer, but in the end, they too perished. By grace, God will keep His promise of the Abrahamic Covenant. When the end comes, and Satan aloof, God will translate 144,000 in earth into heaven. That’s not “Earth” and “Heaven” but from the visible to the invisible.
  I believe there is hidden meaning to the Lord’s Prayer for us: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven” (Mat 6:10; NKJV). But the KJV makes it significantly different: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (The NKJV has it as the world, whereas the KJV as a substance.) Elsewhere in many places, the King James Version uses the phrase, “in earth” not “on earth.” That implies that both heaven and earth are not places, but one an invisible realm and the other visible. For instance, in present-day Jerusalem, God’s Will is that the Jews do as they will do in the heaven. They surely will have the same government as they are the same places, but are of different substances.
  Jews are safe until the end in the land of actual milk and honey. They shall be saved when 144,000 will trust Jesus for prosperity. Prosperity is not the milk and honey of the Promised Land, but the spiritual milk and honey of the Promised Paradise! The Jews still look for prosperity in Canaan Land when prosperity only exists in Paradise in heaven, and later in earth when New Jerusalem comes down. Those meek Jews and Christians shall not inherit only the land of Israel, but the Garden Paradise in another realm.
  The Garden of Eden remains in Israel; it just cannot be seen as only its foundation is visible. Abraham saw the Garden Paradise, and I see the heavenly Paradise! Prosperity is when the faithful shall see Paradise and the Tree of Life still standing on the River of God (Rev 22:2). Who has the “right to the Tree of Life in heaven?” “They that do His commandments” (Rev 22:14). The Ten are written on stone for perpetuity, but the Greatest Commandment is written in the hearts of those who trust the Lord. Hatred can be cut off with circumcision of the heart, but love endures forever in those who trust in Jesus until the end.
  Why was Paradise referred to as "Abraham's Bosom" in the story of the rich man and Lazarus? Because Abraham understood prosperity. He realized that the Promised Land was the comfort of Paradise in Heaven, and not the Kingdom of David itself! Jews still fail to understand that Abraham found Paradise when he died, and that he is now in comfort there!