The first blue circle of the chart is the church, which is composed of the real Christians. Within this blue circle is a broken circle also in blue. This circle signifies the overcoming believers, who are among the churches and belong to the churches. As Christians our color is blue. We are heavenly. We are on earth, yet we are heavenly. An American, for example, may be in South Africa, but he is still an American. He is an American in South Africa. Today we are here on earth, but we are not an earthly people. We are the heavenly people.
God has chosen and regenerated millions of people, but not all will go along with God. These become the defeated believers. Some who have been regenerated do cooperate with God. These become the overcoming believers. Among the believers, then, there are two categories, the overcoming and the defeated. Much of the dispute concerning the rapture is due to the missing of this point. The overcoming believers will participate in the enjoyment of the millennial kingdom, but the defeated ones will miss the mark.
In 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 the Apostle Paul deals with a brother who is involved in fornication with his father's wife. This situation forced the apostle "to deliver such a one to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord" (v. 6). His spirit, Paul said, would still be saved. Such a sinful person nonetheless was still a brother, chosen by God and regenerated. Paul commits such a one to Satan to be chastised, yet this person's spirit will still be saved. When the Lord Jesus comes back to set up the kingdom, could such a defeated believer be a king along with the Apostle Paul? It is not logical to believe so. Nevertheless, his spirit will be saved. This case shows that there is a real difference between the overcoming believers and the defeated ones.
Outside the blue circle of the church are two dotted black circles. The first one indicates the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens. This appearance we call Christendom. There are genuine Christians and false ones. Among the real Christians are the overcoming ones and the defeated ones. The real and the nominal Christians make up what is termed Christendom. There is a difference between Christendom and the church as the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ as the genuine church comprises only the true believers. The nominal, false believers are not members of Christ's Body. They are in Christendom, but they are not in the church.
The second dotted black circle, underneath "The Appearance of the Kingdom of the Heavens," signifies the world, the nations. Among the nations is Christendom, comprising the real and false believers. The genuine Christians are the real members of the Body of Christ, which is the church. Among these genuine Christians there are the overcoming ones and the defeated ones. Among the nations is Christendom. Within Christendom is the church, a composition of the genuine Christians and not including the merely nominal ones. Among the real Christians are the overcomers. On this earth today there are these four categories of people—the worldly people, the nominal Christians, the real Christians, and the overcoming Christians.