Welcome to Christian Forums, a Christian Forum that recognizes that all Christians are a work in progress.
You will need to register to be able to join in fellowship with Christians all over the world.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!
No, you said "Bema" was exclusively a "rewards ceremony" My post was to dispute that.The evidence you brought to bear on this is good information, but it only goes to prove my statement that...
The early KJV translators translated this as Judgment Seat of Christ. when it was first translated (1611), the only known use of BHMA in 1611 that didn't even fit the context was Tribunal (Judgment Seat), also Platform, Step.
You cited as the usage of BHMA:
That is what I am arguing!!
- βῆμα, a step, pace; a platform (emphasis added)
The judges of the Olympics would sit on a raised platform so they could see the competition and ultimately reward the winners. The raised platform was called the BHMA. FYI, the BHMA is still seen in Corinth today.
Also, your very first sentence above says, "This is why I do not accept it as referring sole(l)y to a rewards ceremony."
This is what I have argued also. One use of BHMA is the raised platform found in the middle of the city where various trials were held by city magistrates. You can see that both uses of BHMA have judges and raised platforms.
The evidence you brought to bear on this is good information, but it only goes to prove my statement that...
The early KJV translators translated this as Judgment Seat of Christ. when it was first translated (1611), the only known use of BHMA in 1611 that didn't even fit the context was Tribunal (Judgment Seat), also Platform, Step.
You cited as the usage of BHMA:
That is what I am arguing!!
- βῆμα, a step, pace; a platform (emphasis added)
The judges of the Olympics would sit on a raised platform so they could see the competition and ultimately reward the winners. The raised platform was called the BHMA. FYI, the BHMA is still seen in Corinth today.
Also, your very first sentence above says, "This is why I do not accept it as referring sole(l)y to a rewards ceremony."
This is what I have argued also. One use of BHMA is the raised platform found in the middle of the city where various trials were held by city magistrates. You can see that both uses of BHMA have judges and raised platforms.
The judgment happens after the Millennium at the Great White Throne Judgment.
Amen! Not sure how a dead Unbeliever can be a "co-labourer With God", eh?:Does not Scripture tell you that only the DEAD shall be judged before the GWT?
We will all be judged according to what we have done...
"Do you suppose, O man ~ you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself ~ that you will escape the judgment of God?... He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury" (Romans 2:3-8).
And we see this in Jesus's graphic description of the final Judgment ~ Yes, the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20:11-15 ~ in Matthew 25:31-46. This will occur very shortly after all are bodily resurrected, some to eternal life and others to judgment (John 5:28-29).
Grace and peace to all.
"the dead, great and small" (Revelation 20:11), RWB, includes both God's saints (all those in Christ, so believers; Revelation 11:18, 19:5) and the beast's worshipers (unbelievers; Revelation 13:16, 19:18).In Rev 20 only the DEAD (unbelievers) are called to stand in resurrected MORTAL body of flesh & blood to be judged according to what is found written in the books and the book of life.
Well it's Jesus, actually... <smile> ...but yes, I agree, He's speaking of the resurrection of "all who are in the tombs" (John 5:28), which includes ~ like "the dead great and small" of Revelation 20:11 ~ both believers and unbelievers who have died previously; we know there will be people still alive when Jesus returns, both believers and unbelievers, as Paul speaks of in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 ~ "the dead in Christ will rise first, and (those in Christ) who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air..." Unbelievers will be resurrected, too, but to judgment... So to what you say here, yes, all mortal flesh will be resurrected to "life" in the sense that they will be alive again, but many will be resurrected to God's eternal judgment, which will be exacted upon them, placed upon them, in the form of final and permanent condemnation, as a result of the final Judgment, and this is the second death of Revelation 20... <shudder>John tells us this will happen in an hour coming when all MORTAL flesh is resurrected to life.
Well, again, John is writing Jesus's words there... you know that... but yes, two very different outcomes, or what they are resurrected to, many to (eternal) life and the rest to (eternal) judgment. I think we will agree that the final Judgment immediately follows this general, physical resurrection, which, when the scene of the final judgment opens in Revelation 20:11 has just happened.But John writes of only those who have done bad being resurrected to damnation, while those who have done good resurrected to life.
Again, "the dead, great and small" (Revelation 20:11) includes both God's saints and the beast's worshipers. And at the beginning of this final Judgment, "books were opened" (Revelation 20:12; "books" is plural, and a good cross-reference here is Daniel 7:10, "A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened"), and this provides the ground on which each is judged.Those who have done good are not judged with those who have done bad...
Sure....because only the good are changed from mortal/corruptible flesh and blood to immortal/incorruptible body that shall never die.
Disagree; see above.The faithful (born again) mortal dead shall not be judged (GWTJ)...
No, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us... credited to us, in God's mercy and compassion, His grace, just as was the case with Abraham. This is our justification, not a judgment placed upon us, and not a judgment at all but a blessing, borne of God's grace, His mercy and compassion....the body resurrected from the grave was judged before death as being in Christ
Of course...The faithful are those who have been born again...
Disagree. See above. Christ's righteousness is imputed to us; we are credited with it, even while not having any righteousness of our own, and this is because of God's grace, His mercy and compassion toward us in this justification and our being born again of the Spirit and thus placed in Christ. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, "God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ ~ by grace you have been saved ~ and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works...." Surely you will agree that this is not a judgment of any kind, but a great blessing....because in life before they died, they stood before the judgment seat of Christ,
The chastening, RWB, is God's discipline, which He gives to those He loves (Hebrews 12:5-6), and thus also a grace. Yes, this discipline can be exacted on us in the form of judgments, but in a much lesser sense. But we are not now and will not be at the end of the age judged as unrighteous and thus receive final judgment in the sense of condemnation. As Paul says in Romans 8:1, "there is therefore now no more condemnation for those in Christ Jesus." But this does not negate what he says in Romans 2:6-8, that "He will render to each one according to His works..." (so all will be judged) "...to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury." So, we will be judged at the final Judgment, the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20. But we will be judged according to the righteousness of Christ. and thus we will stand in the Judgment, unlike the wicked, who "will not stand in the Judgment... the way of the wicked will perish" (Psalm 1), and this is the "second death" of Revelation 20, which is exacted in God's wrath, which we will not be exempted from and therefore not subject to.judged receiving good (blessings in life) or bad (chastening from God) according to what they have done while physically in the body of Christ.
"the dead, great and small" (Revelation 20:11), RWB, includes both God's saints (all those in Christ, so believers; Revelation 11:18, 19:5) and the beast's worshipers (unbelievers; Revelation 13:16, 19:18).
Again, "the dead, great and small" (Revelation 20:11) includes both God's saints and the beast's worshipers.
Again, Paul says in Romans 2:6-11, "He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury."
Matthew 25:31-46 that all are judged. Jesus will place "the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left," and those on His right will be judged righteous because, as He says, "I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me... as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me."
Christ's righteousness is imputed to us; we are credited with it, even while not having any righteousness of our own, and this is because of God's grace, His mercy and compassion toward us in this justification and our being born again of the Spirit and thus placed in Christ.
Yes we wiiiiiiiiill... <smile> The difference is that we who are in Christ will have an Advocate, and thus will not be judged according to our own righteousness ~ thank goodness for that, because we have none in and of ourselves ~ but His. We will all be judged according to what we have done.Born again believers will not be judged before the GWT!
You actually answer your own question here, RWB. I think the disagreement between us here may be regarding Revelation 20:12... who John is actually referring to when he says "the dead." It's actually "the dead, great and small" (emphasis mine), which in this vision given to him includes all people, so believer and unbeliever alike. And this is driven home in the latter part of verse 12, there, "the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done..." [note the striking parallel there to what Paul says in Romans 2:6, "He will render to each one according to his works"] ...and again, "books" (plural, and including "the book of life" mentioned just previously in that very verse.Why would you include born again believers who have eternal life through Christ with "the dead, great and small"? Only the mortal body of born-again believers are destined to die.
Sure. Agreed. That second sentence... This is a little picky, maybe, but yes, for all of us, believers and unbelievers, our spirits will be reunited with our physical body in the second resurrection, at Jesus's return. And in a certain sense, we will all be "immortally alive"... everyone will live throughout eternity. But, as a result of the final Judgment, some will enter into the second death of Revelation 20, which is... away from the new heaven and new earth, not in the presence of the One Who is life. And they will live, as the man in Jesus's parable in Luke 16, in a state of torment, a "fire," where there is no grace but only permanent, unrelenting judgment. Forever. <shudder>Those born-again believers who have physically died are the spirits of just men already made spiritually perfect. Our mortal flesh shall be resurrected and changed and made immortally alive through the spirit that returns with Christ.
Sure. Agreed.In this life when we have been born-again through the Spirit of Christ in us...
He is. It's only called the white throne judgment in Revelation 20. But he is speaking of the final Judgment.But Paul is not speaking of the GWTJ.
Right, but his comments there in Romans 2 are about everyone. He has just spent pretty much the entirety of Romans 1 talking about those outside the church, unbelievers, those who have "exchanged the truth for a lie," being "without excuse," but then he turns and says we have no excuse, either. And then, yes, all will be judged according to what they have done.He is speaking to the church.
Romans 1 through 7 is about the whole of mankind, and then in Romans 8 is about God's grace to us who are in Christ. And we will be judged at the end of the age, but according to Christ's righteousness, not our own, because we are in Christ.Those who profess to be born-again Christians of being judged according to our works done through/in the body of Christ.
Agreed. Most certainly. But we will be judged in it. Matthew 27:31-46 is a graphic description of this same final Judgment. And believers are there, on Christ's right, and they... we... are judged. According to what we have done....we shall not fear the GWTJ that shall come at the end of this age.
Yeah, I literally just pointed that out in my last post. <smile>Remember the Scripture, while we are in this life God chastens and rebukes those whom He loves, dealing with us as sons, whereof all are partakers in this life.
Absolutely. We have actually already been declared righteous, and have been born again, and are in Christ, as I said. This is the justification given to us by God. And as Paul says, having been predestined, we have also been justified, and we will be glorified. This "golden chain of salvation" cannot be broken.Those on the right hand of Christ are declared righteous before all nations are gathered before Him. That's why they are on His right, and not on His left hand...
Ah, well, the outcome of their judgment ~ because they are in Christ ~ will be... different... <smile> ...than those on the left. <smile>they too will not be judged as those on the left.
Will we be judged when we die?
Yes we wiiiiiiiiill... <smile> The difference is that we who are in Christ will have an Advocate, and thus will not be judged according to our own righteousness ~ thank goodness for that, because we have none in and of ourselves ~ but His. We will all be judged according to what we have done.
It's actually "the dead, great and small" (emphasis mIne), which in this vision given to him includes all people, so believer and unbeliever alike.
He is. It's only called the white throne judgment in Revelation 20. But he is speaking of the final Judgment.
Right, but his comments there in Romans 2 are about everyone.
Not sure I agree or disagree. Would you define "judgment"? I think of the English word seems to be used in a negative sense more times than not. I think of judgment in Greek as something more like an evaluation of various components. It also means evaluated after cognitive reasoning to come to a conclusion, whether good or badThat's a silly question Did you not read the new testament?
Hebrews 9:27
it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment
Would you define "judgment"?
That's a silly question Did you not read the new testament?
Hebrews 9:27
it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment