Pastor Paul Sadler, the President of the Berean Bible Society, teaches that there are two distinct and separate "plans" of God, one which applies to the "earthly" sphere and another which applies to the "heavenly" sphere:

"God would have us understand that He is the Creator of heaven and the Creator of earth, which strongly implies that He has a different 'plan' and 'purpose' for each" (Sadler, Exploring the Unsearchable Riches of Christ [Stephens Point, WI: Worzalla Publishing, 1993], 26).

In regard to the Lord's "earthly" plan he writes that "those who were saved under this program, such as Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Peter, Stephen, and the saved of the future tribulation period all have or had an 'earthly' hope" (Ibid., p.30).

Was Abraham's hope an earthly one, as Sadler asserts? The following demonstrates that he actually desired a "heavenly" country:

"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went...for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God...These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city" (Heb.11:13-16).

While on the earth the saints spoken of here are said to be "strangers and pilgrims." The Greek word translated "stranger" means "a foreigner" and the Greek word translated "pilgrim" means: "in the NT metaph. in reference to heaven as the native country, one who sojourns on earth" (Thayer's Greek English Lexicon).

Abraham desired a heavenly country so Sadler is clearly in error when he said that Abraham had an earthly hope and not a heavenly one. Next, Sadler writes the following in regard to the Lord's "heavenly" program:

"Since the Holy Spirit marks the beginning of the Body of Christ with the conversion of Paul, all those who have been saved from his conversion to the present have a 'heavenly hope'" (Ibid., 33).,

According to Pastor Sadler only those saved from the conversion of Paul to the present time have a "heavenly hope" and belong to the Body of Christ. Therefore, according to him none of the original Apostles were members of the Body of Christ, including John or Peter. So if Pastor Sadler is correct then neither the epistles of John nor the epistles of Peter are addressed to those in the Body of Christ.

Pastor Sadler refers to those who received the Jewish epistles as "kingdom saints" because they will be on the earth during the earthly reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here the Lord tells the Apostles that they will sit upon thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel during the earthly kingdom:

"And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Lk.22:29-30).

The Apostle Paul reveals that those in the Body of Christ will be caught up with the Lord Jesus in the air and from that point forward they will always be with Him:

"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: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess.4:16-17).

The whole context of this passage is in regard to a "physical" presence of the Lord Jesus. At the rapture Chtistians will meet Him in the air and that certainly speaks of a "physical" presence so when Paul says that we "will ever be with" Him this can only be saying that Christians will forever be in His presence from that point forward. So when He returns to the earth we will return with Him.

Therefore it can also be said that those in the Body of Christ are "kingdom saints" since they will also be participants in the earthly kingdom. We can also see that Paul says that in the future the saints will judge the world:

"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" (1 Cor.6:2).