{"id":19149,"date":"2017-05-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-058-qa\/"},"modified":"2017-05-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T05:00:00","slug":"soteriology-058-qa","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-058-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 058: Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19149","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 058: Q&A","sermon_date":"20170514","sermon_month":"5","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4980,"sermon_slides":"","sermon_mp3":4666,"sermon_id":"51417103329","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"3:16","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSoteriology 58 Q&A\n\nMay 14, 2017\n\nWe don\u2019t have a handout for today and I\u2019ll tell you why in just a second but first of all Happy Mother\u2019s Day; if you have a mother can you raise your hand.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Mothers are pretty important I think.\u00a0 And I was going to start a new series of studies on the Protestant Reformation but then my thought was well, next week we\u2019re having a congregational meeting so we\u2019re not having a Sunday School next class so I thought it\u2019d be kind of awkward to start a series and then not do it the following week, I thought that might lose some momentum and then I started to think that I\u2019ve been saying over and over again, I\u2019ll get to your questions at the end, I\u2019ll get to your questions at the end,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 don\u2019t I keep saying that?\u00a0 And then ten seconds to go I say let\u2019s close in prayer, we don\u2019t have time for questions.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve done 52 lessons in soteriology, we\u2019ve gone through a test that took five weeks to go over and I kind of feel like I\u2019ve shortchanged you in terms of the opportunity to answer questions.\u00a0 So I think what I\u2019ll do today is just open it up for questions.\u00a0 If I was running a talk show I\u2019d call this open lines Friday\u2026 it\u2019s Sunday, I couldn\u2019t think of a slogan for Sunday, send them in Sunday, I don\u2019t know, something like that.\u00a0 And to my knowledge we are still livestreaming this and recording it for video and audio purposes so when you ask a question I\u2019ll try to listen very carefully and restate it for the benefit of people that may be listening online.\n\nSo if you have any questions that have not had a chance to get answered concerning soteriology we\u2019ll open it up at this time and I know it\u2019s always awkward to ask the first question so I brought in some of my own questions that people have e-mailed to me.\u00a0 So as you\u2019re formulating your questions let me read to you at least one question that I got online.\n\nThis is an important one.\u00a0 It says: Dr. Woods, thank you for sharing in the prophecy watchers. (that\u2019s a video that I did, an interview with Gary Stearman, it\u2019s available online)\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to your next sharing of this topic, I do have some questions and I\u2019m wondering if I can get help from you.\u00a0 Okay, here we go, and Rose just walked in, Rose, I\u2019m reading your question right now so don\u2019t be panicked.\n\nIs what Matthew 25:14-30 talks about similar to Luke 19:11-27?\u00a0 Matthew 25:14-30 has the passage of casting out the useless servant into the outer darkness where there\u2019s going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth.\u00a0 Luke 19:11-27 has the passage of the lazy slave who does not make profit out of the minas given to him by the noblemen, brought by the noblemen, to him to be slain at his presence.\u00a0 Are both texts referring to the same message?\u00a0 And here\u2019s really the heart of it\u2014is the weeping and gnashing of teeth\u2026 by the way,\u00a0 you\u2019re going to find the weeping and gnashing of teeth also in Matthew 13:4, is the weeping and gnashing of teeth the same as recorded in Matthew 25:30.\u00a0 The weeping and gnashing of teeth is for unbelieving Jews, for general unbelievers or for carnal Christians.\u00a0 See, that\u2019s how that relates to Soteriology.\u00a0 In Luke 19 the good and faithful slave prophets for the noblemen and he will be rewarded to have authority over ten or five cities.\u00a0 Is this rewards at the millennial age or the beginning of the kingdom for overcoming Christians.\n\nIf you take a look, for example, at Matthew 25:30\u00a0 you\u2019ve got several parables Christ taught dealing with people when He comes back and some are rewarded and they go into the kingdom and they receive authority.\u00a0 Others are assigned to weeping and gnashing of teeth.\u00a0 So Matthew 25:30 says, \u201cThrow out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.\u201d\u00a0 So the question that\u2019s asked is what is this?\u00a0 Is this the Bema Seat Judgment?\u00a0 And unfortunately the GES movement, the Grace Evangelical Society movement has kind of gone into this teaching and a lot of it comes from a book by Jody Dillow called The Reign of the Servant Kings<\/em>; it\u2019s about an 800 page book, actually it\u2019s about a thousand page book, it looks like the GT phone book.\u00a0 And then he expanded it, as if a thousand pages is not enough, he put another 400 or 500 pages into it and it\u2019s now called Final Destiny<\/em>.\n\nAnd it\u2019s an interesting book, there\u2019s a lot of interesting things in it but there\u2019s this teaching that he brings forth and this is the direction the GES movement is going in, Grace Evangelical Society, it\u2019s the direction that Zane Hodges, one of the great exegetes of the Free Grace Movement, towards the end of his life started going this direction, and they began to take these parables that Christ gave here in Matthew 25, Luke 19, and they began to say the person that goes off into outer darkness or the person that goes off into weeping and gnashing of teeth is actually a believer who\u2019s being dealt with aggressively by the Lord at the Bema Seat Judgment.\u00a0 So they start interpreting these as carnal Christians.\u00a0 And from that came this view called millennial exclusivism which is this idea that not all Christians are going to be in the millennium; some are going to be assigned to this sort of outer darkness during the thousand years.\u00a0 And I like to call that kind of a Protestant purgatory, you know, for a lot of people.\n\nSo really the bottom line is they started to take these parables that Jesus gave and they started to apply those to the Bema Seat Judgment. So consequently a lot of Christians are right now afraid of the Bema Seat Judgment, they think it\u2019s a time of retribution, they think it\u2019s a time of punitive damages and they haven\u2019t necessarily put all of these carnal Christians into hell but they\u2019ve turned the Bema Seat Judgment into something into where you can actually be cut up because in Luke 19 it talks about a man being cut up.\u00a0 And my wife and I were at a friend of ours in the Dallas area and Zane Hodges was there and my wife, who\u2019s not afraid to ask questions, asked him point blank, is the man in Luke 19 a believer, that\u2019s being cut up.\u00a0 And I was there to hear his answer.\u00a0 He said yes.\u00a0 And Anne asked well, what\u2019s this business about being cut up, can a believer be cut up.\u00a0 And he said that\u2019s actually the\u2026 he went over to Hebrews 4:12 where the Word of God is called a what?\u00a0 A sword, and he tried to make this argument that it\u2019s actually a believer being chastised by the Lord at the Bema Seat Judgment.\n\nSo what\u2019s starting to happen is they\u2019re turning, some of these folks they\u2019re turning what I would call heaven into hell and they\u2019re taking parables that Christ gave before the church even started and they\u2019re trying to turn those into Bema Seat teachings.\u00a0 See what\u2019s going on here?\u00a0 And that\u2019s what this question gets to.\n\nMy very fast answer on this, and by the way if you want an in depth treatment on why this teaching is wrong my friend, Tom Stegall ad Duluth Bible Church wrote another book, and his book is like 800 pages, I don\u2019t know how these guys have time to write these 1,000 page, 800 page books, but his book refuting this teaching, which is very good, is called Who\u2019s Afraid of Outer Darkness<\/em>.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ve got the title wrong, Should Christians Fear Outer Darkness<\/em> and\u00a0 you can find that on Amazon, Tom Stegall, refuting this teaching by Jody Dillow, Zane Hodges, The Grace Evangelical Society, etc. So the issue is, you know, you look at these parables that Jesus gave and He talks about people being cut up, He talks about people going into the weeping and gnashing of teeth, people going off into outer darkness and the question is: is this the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\n\nAnd my answer to that this is not the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, for one very simple reason: the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ is a doctrine unfolded by who?\u00a0 The Apostle Paul and the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, therefore, is a doctrine that pertains to the church.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 Now when did the church start?\u00a0 Acts 2, and God raised up the Apostle Paul to explain mystery realm doctrine to the church, and one of those doctrines that he unfolds is the doctrine of judgment\/rewards, the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\u00a0 So when Jesus uttered these parables here, and this is the key thing to understand, and let me back up for just a minute.\n\nAnother person that went heavily into this teaching is Chuck Missler, his wife, Nancy Missler wrote a book, and I can\u2019t remember the name of the book but it\u2019s got the word \u201ckingdom\u201d in it [The Kingdom Power & Glory<\/em>] and\u00a0 Chuck Missler endorsed the book and started to promote the book and these guys are all reading off the same script, it\u2019s the same script that Joseph Dillow in The<\/em> Reign of the Servant Kings<\/em> was reading off of.\u00a0 And it\u2019s this idea that the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ is actually a time of terror.\n\nI think that is an abuse of those parables because Jesus spoke these parables before the church existed. See that, and they largely concern a period of time after the church is gone.\u00a0 And the church is a mystery, something unknown. So therefore I don\u2019t think Jesus is referring to the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ when He talks about outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth and people being cut up.\u00a0 What He is talking about here is when He comes back at His Second Advent, after the tribulation is over and the rapture had happened more than seven years before, right, when Jesus Christ comes back He\u2019s going to find two groups of Jews on the earth, those that are in faith and those that are in unbelief.\u00a0 The ones that are in unbelief are sent into outer darkness, which is not the Bema Seat Judgment but is what?\u00a0 It\u2019s hell, so being cut up, weeping and gnashing of teeth, that is not a description of the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ; that\u2019s a description of hell itself that unbelieving Jews will experience, not at the rapture, the rapture concerns the church, but at the Second Advent.\u00a0 And believing Jews at that time will go into His earthly kingdom and be rewarded with different positions in that earthly kingdom.\n\nSo because these parables are written before the church existed and they deal with the period of time after the church is gone, I don\u2019t think you can develop Bema Seat judgment teachings from these parables.\u00a0 So that\u2019s probably the main reason I disagree with what these teachers are doing with these parables and I basically come to the conclusion that I come to because of my dispensationalism.\u00a0 He\u2019s not dealing with church age truth here; He\u2019s dealing with Jewish truth.\u00a0 And He\u2019s not talking about a judgment of rewards, he\u2019s talking about heaven or hell for believing or unbelieving Jews at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So therefore at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, after the rapture, which concerns us, you don\u2019t have to worry about outer darkness, you don\u2019t have to worry about being excoriated by Christ.\n\nThere is only two verses that I can think of in which something negative can happen to you.\u00a0 One of them is 1 Corinthians 3:15, so now I\u2019m in Paul, right?\u00a0 1 Corinthians, so this is where you get your Bema Seat Teaching, not from these pre-church age parables, you get it from Paul.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 3:15,\u00a0 you know the passage well, it says, \u201cIf any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be\u201d what? \u201csaved, yet so as through fire.\u201d\u00a0 So there is a time period where the Lord doesn\u2019t take us, and this is the problem with applying these parables to the Bema Seat because it\u2019s actually these people being excoriated and being sent into outer darkness where there\u2019s weeping and gnashing of teeth.\n\nAt the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ it\u2019s not you that\u2019s judged because your judgment has already been settled at the cross, right?\u00a0 It\u2019s your works that are tested, to test their quality, and if they\u2019re fleshly works, wood, hay or stubble they\u2019re dissolved in the fire.\u00a0 If they\u2019re things done with the right motives under the right power then they\u2019re gold, silver, and costly stones and those remain and those are part of your reward above and beyond heaven.\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice in Paul\u2019s doctrine of the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ we are going to be judged but our works are going to be judged and the worst thing that could really happen is you spent your life as a Christian in the flesh and so consequently there\u2019s a regret as you see your life being dissolved, not you being dissolved, not your place in heaven being dissolved but your works being dissolved because they were spent in fleshly pursuits in the church age.\u00a0 So you look back and there\u2019s regret and that\u2019s why it says some during that judgment will suffer loss.\n\nThe only\u2026 it\u2019s like, I don\u2019t know, working on a paper that\u2019s 40 pages and you get it all worked up and you get all your footnotes correct and then you accidently hit the delete button and you can\u2019t retrieve it.\u00a0 There\u2019s regret there because of all the energy you spent on this paper and now it\u2019s for nothing.\u00a0 And this is why the doctrine of the carnal Christian is so important; there will be Christians at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ who will get there and they\u2019ll have sort of a regret that what they spent their life in really didn\u2019t amount to much because it\u2019s tried for what it is and it\u2019s dissolved.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the loss of reward, it\u2019s not you but your works go through a fire.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably the most severe thing that can happen to someone at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\n\nAnd then the only other verse I can think of where it\u2019s something negative is over in 1 John 2:28, if you can turn there just for a minute, I John 2:28, which says, \u201cNow, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in\u201d what? \u201cin shame at His coming.\u201d \u00a0So some people at this Bema Seat Judgment of Christ will actually be ashamed; Christians will be ashamed.\u00a0 Now \u201cashamed\u201d there is in the middle voice and that\u2019s very significant because it\u2019s something you do to yourself; you look back on your life and you say what could have been, I mean, I\u2019m in heaven and that\u2019s wonderful but look at all the different ways the Lord could have blessed me, look at all the different ways the Lord could have used me, and you kind of look back at\u00a0 your life and you\u2026 God doesn\u2019t impose shame on you but you impose it on yourself.\u00a0 So other than 1 John 2:28 and 1 Corinthians 3:15 those are the only verses I can think of for the Bema Seat that would engender sort of a negative response. I think generally it\u2019s going to be a very happy time because many Christians will be in heaven and they\u2019ll be rejoicing and then you\u2019ll look back on your life and see how God used you and blessed you and you\u2019ll be rewarded further.\n\nSo that\u2019s why I like the title of Tom Seagull\u2019s book, Who\u2019s Afraid of Outer Darkness<\/em>.\u00a0 You know, the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ you really look forward to and not be afraid of.\u00a0 It\u2019s like an exam at school, if you\u2019ve been diligent in studying when the test comes actually taking the test is a joy; it\u2019s like a performance appraisal at work; if you\u2019ve been diligent on the job when your performance appraisal comes it\u2019s generally a joy.\u00a0 The only people that are afraid of exams and afraid of performance tests are people that haven\u2019t been faithful, people that haven\u2019t been diligent and that\u2019s why Paul warns us and tells the Corinthian Christians about this Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, He wants them to have a favorable ruling at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not a time of weeping and gnashing of teeth, it\u2019s not a time where people are cast into outer darkness, and to take the pre-church age parables and apply them to the doctrine of the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, to my mind, is an abuse of the Bible.\u00a0 And this is basically what I would say is a dispensational call. I interpret it the way I interpret it because I believe some passages in the Bible concern Israel and some passages concern the church. \u00a0Does that make any sense, what I just said?\u00a0 If you all need further clarity on it\u2026\n\n[Someone asks a question]\u00a0 I\u2019m repeating this for the benefit of people that are listening on line that couldn\u2019t hear the question, but basically what she\u2019s asking is, is there a judgment of rewards for Israel and also a judgment of rewards for the church, that\u2019s basically what you asked, right?\u00a0 One thing I\u2019ll correct if I can do that, you said the Bema Seat is a time period for us to be judged; in reality there is no verse of Scripture that indicates we personally are judged because as\u00a0 you pointed out the full penalty for our sins has been paid for by Jesus Christ; it\u2019s a time period where our works are put through a fire.\n\nSo the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, as Paul unfolds it, is a judgment only for the church.\u00a0 It takes place in heaven after the rapture, I would think fairly close after the rapture as the tribulation period is occurring on the earth below.\u00a0 And one of the things to understand to start to interpret the Bible correctly is God has separate programs for Israel and the church.\u00a0 They\u2019re not just separate people, they are separate programs.\u00a0 Now this contradicts a lot of where people want to go today because they want to believe in a one-peoples of God theology.\u00a0 But when you look at the details you start to see very quickly that Israel and the church are two separate trains on two separate railroad tracks.\u00a0 So what He does for Israel is different than for the church; what He does for the church is different than for Israel.\n\nSo for example, Christ is coming back for us at the rapture, the church, but He\u2019s coming back for Israel when?\u00a0 At the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 So His program for returning is different for both.\u00a0 So therefore Israel\u2019s judgment is not to be confused with the church\u2019s judgment.\u00a0 In fact, I don\u2019t even like that expression, \u201cthe church\u2019s judgment\u201d because the church has already had its judgment, called the cross of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a judgment of rewards in heaven for the church only.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Paul\u2019s dealing with in 1 Corinthians 3.\u00a0 It has nothing to do with what God is going to do with Israel.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to keep all of His promises to Israel but He\u2019s working today differently through the age of the church.\u00a0 Does that help at all.\n\nSo when you\u2019re reading a verse of Scripture you want to ask yourself does this verse of Scripture relate to Israel or does it relate to the church.\u00a0 And the problem with the direction that Dillow, Misler, and others, Zane Hodges, G.E.S. the problem with the direction they\u2019re going in is they\u2019re not distinguishing Israel and the church; they\u2019re taking passages that relate to Israel\u2019s judgment, unbelieving Jews, and making it sound like that\u2019s some kind of church age teaching when in reality that teaching was given before the church ever existed.\u00a0 So hopefully I\u2019m helping a little bit on that. F Have you guys run into this teaching?\u00a0 This punitive judgment at the Bema Seat type teaching.\n\n[Someone asks a question]\u00a0 Just for the benefit of people watching online his question is for a Jew in the present church age, if I\u2019m understanding this right, does this concern, does his program concern Israel or the church, [someone says something] believing Jew, thank you.\u00a0 A believing Jew, like Paul, in the present church age, is he part of Israel or the church?\u00a0 And the answer is anybody that\u2019s trusted in Christ from the day of Pentecost to the rapture is part of the church.\u00a0 So they are, 1 Corinthians 12:13 baptized or identified with the body of Christ, whether, as Paul says Jew or Greek, free or slaves.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 12:13, \u201cFor by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.\u201d]\nSo they are part of the church age and God is dealing with them on that basis.\n\nVery quickly you might want to just turn over to Galatians 3:28 as Paul describes the church age.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThere is neither\u201d what? \u201cJew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 So nationality, whether you\u2019re Jew or Gentile makes you a part of the body of Christ or the church age and God deals with you on that basis.\u00a0 If you go over to Ephesians 2:14 Paul writes there, \u201cFor He Himself is our peace, who made both groups\u201d that\u2019s Jew and Gentile, \u201cinto one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.\u201d\u00a0 So if the Gentiles are in a majority throughout the church age but there are some Jews that get saved, Paul being one, so if they are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ from the day of Pentecost to the rapture they\u2019re part of the church age.\u00a0 Does that help.\u00a0 Okay.\n\n[Someone asks a question] So if a Jew gets saved are their promises earthly rather than heavenly, are they heavenly rather than earthly, and if you look at Revelation 5:10, I think we need to be careful about saying that the church\u2019s programs are totally heavenly because Revelation 5:10, I think in context is dealing with the church.\u00a0 It says, \u201cYou have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign\u201d where? \u201cupon the earth.\u201d\u00a0 So we, you know, are very much involved in this coming earthly kingdom.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019re going to be given places of authority in this earthly kingdom.\u00a0 In fact, Paul says, over in 1 Corinthians 6:3, don\u2019t you know how to work out your disputes amongst yourselves given the fact that we will judge angels one day, things like that.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 6:3, \u201cDo you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?\u201d]\n\nSo we\u2019re told we\u2019re part of Israel\u2019s kingdom that\u2019s coming and we have a very special place in it so we\u2019re not totally separate; there\u2019s always a little bit of blending back and forth.\u00a0 But at the same time God is dealing with the church differently than He\u2019s dealing with Israel.\u00a0 One of the key differences is Israel is going through the tribulation period and we\u2019re not.\u00a0 So there\u2019s always a little bit of blending.\u00a0 And you know, people get upset at this doctrine but can\u2019t a talented author weave together several sub themes and bring it all to a wonderful conclusion.\u00a0 And that\u2019s basically what God is doing with Israel and the church.\u00a0 I mean, they\u2019re different programs, they\u2019re different sub themes but they\u2019re all going to be weaved together somehow in the providence of God into one final solution.\u00a0 And my answer to people that want to push us all together and blend us all together is can\u2019t we have a little variety.\u00a0 I mean, God is a God of diversity, isn\u2019t He?\u00a0 I mean\u2026 we have male and female, we have God\u2019s program for the angels, good angels, the fallen angels.\u00a0 So God is dealing with different groups different ways but somehow in some way it all kind of comes together into one compelling conclusion, which is His glory.\u00a0 Hopefully I helped a little bit on that.\n\n[Someone asks a question] His question is in Matthew 25, I can\u2019t remember where it starts, verse 31 and goes through 46, the sheep and goat judgment, what judgment is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s called the sheep and goat judgment, and the dead giveaway is in Matthew 25:31, you might want to take a look at that for just a second.\u00a0 Matthew 25:31, which says\u2026 this is at the end of the tribulation, right, it\u2019s in the Olivet Discourse, it says, \u201cBut when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.\u201d\u00a0 So which throne is that?\u00a0 David\u2019s throne on the earth after the tribulation period has transpired,\u00a0 you get a description of the tribulation period in Matthew 24 and Matthew 25.\u00a0 So He comes back to the earth and there\u2019s people on the earth because some people survive the tribulation, right?\u00a0 Now He\u2019s got to figure out which ones are believers that go into the kingdom and which ones are unbelievers.\u00a0 So the \u201csheep\u201d are on His right, notice that the sheep are always on the right in the Bible, just thought I\u2019d toss that in, and the goats are always on the what?\u00a0 The left.\u00a0 Anyway, I don\u2019t want to go too far with that.\n\nBut the sheep are believers and they go into the kingdom; the goats are unbelievers and they go off into Hades and He evaluates, makes the determination based on how they treated Christ\u2019s what?\u00a0 Brethren.\u00a0 Now who are His brothers?\u00a0 The Jews.\u00a0 So in the tribulation period itself that\u2019s why He says you visited me in prison, you clothed me.\u00a0 So in the tribulation period itself you demonstrate that you are truly a believer in Christ by trying to help the Jewish people who are being oppressed by the antichrist.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like with Adolf Hitler in World War II, you know people that love Christ many times were the ones that wanted to help the Jewish people.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how the determination is made; if you\u2019re a believer you\u2019re a sheep because you help the Jewish people in the tribulation period and you go into the kingdom.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a goat you\u2019re an unbeliever because you didn\u2019t help the Jewish people in the tribulation period, you didn\u2019t demonstrate your faith by your works and so you go off into Hades.\u00a0 That\u2019s the whole context of this.\n\nAnd a lot of people use this today to say man, we\u2019ve got to get out there and help the poor, which I\u2019m in favor of because it says we\u2019ve got to help Christ\u2019s brethren.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is this judgment has nothing to do with helping the poor of today, not that we shouldn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 It\u2019s got nothing to do with the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\u00a0 If you just put it in its context it\u2019s the judgment of the nations that survive the tribulation period, some survive and Jesus is making the determination which of you all are believers, which of you all are unbelievers based on your assistance of the Jewish people.\u00a0 Believers are sheep, they go into the kingdom; unbelievers are goats, they are immediately sent off the earth into Hades.\n\nBut the first part of your question dealt with this punitive damages at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, where does this come from?\u00a0 Does it come from a mentality that we have to sort of pay off some of our sin debt, and a lot of this mentality you\u2019ll find in the doctrine of partial rapture.\u00a0 You guys have heard of partial rapturism.\u00a0 Partial rapturism is he idea that when the rapture happens He is not coming back for the whole body of Christ; He is only coming back for the believers that are submitted to the Lordship of Christ.\u00a0 And so some of the church will go into the tribulation, some of it will not.\u00a0 And so this same mindset gets into the teachings of the Bema Seat, that the Bema Seat Judgment is actually a time of terror for people.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is your participation in the rapture, should it occur in our lifetime\u2026.\n\nBy the way, you\u2019re going to participate in the rapture one way or the other, right?\u00a0 You\u2019re either going to be caught up or if you die before the rapture you\u2019re going to be what?\u00a0 brought down, because there\u2019s going to be a reunion in the sky between the two groups.\u00a0 So one way or the other we\u2019re going to participate in it but the reality of the situation is your participation in the rapture is part of the grace package God has given to you.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And you can be living for Christ at the moment of the rapture and you\u2019ll be taken, and you can be in a state of carnality, Paul even talks about it in 1 Thessalonians 5, whether asleep or awake, and you\u2019ll still be taken in the rapture because the rapture isn\u2019t something that\u2019s gained through human effort, it\u2019s part of the grace package God has given you.\u00a0 And nothing could be clearer on this than the book of 1 Corinthians.\u00a0 Ray Stedman called 1 Corinthians 1 Californians because you\u2019ve got a bunch of saints who are living like what? living like aint\u2019s, they\u2019re not living according to their identity.\n\nThere\u2019s very little doubt that these folks are saved they\u2019re called saints at the beginning of the book.\u00a0 And then Paul gets to the subject of the rapture, after rebuking them for all of their sins, and what does he say in 1 Corinthians 15:51? \u201cBehold, I tell you a mystery, we will what?\u00a0 \u201cWe all shall not sleep, but we shall\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201call\u201d he uses \u201call\u201d twice, \u201call be changed.\u201d\u00a0 Now this is after confronting these people for divisions, chapters 1-3, incest, chapter 5, law suits amongst believers, chapter 6, visiting temple prostitutes, chapter 6, rampant divorce and remarriage, chapter\u00a0 7, the stronger brother flaunting his freedom in the presence of the weaker brother, chapters 8-10, being drunk at the Lord\u2019s table, how much worse can it get, chapter 11, abusing spiritual gifts by putting people that talk in tongues on a pedestal with no interpreter, and then second guessing the doctrine of the resurrection.\u00a0 You can\u2019t a group of people that are more out of fellowship with Christ, can you.\u00a0 How would you like to be the pastor of this crowd?\n\nAnd yet all the way through the book Paul never says I don\u2019t think you guys are Christians.\u00a0 What he says is you\u2019re going to lose at the Bema Seat Judgment.\u00a0 That\u2019s why he unfolds the doctrine of the Bema Seat Judgment to these people.\u00a0 And then he says to this same group, \u201cwe will all be changed.\u201d\u00a0 So your participation in the rapture is part of the grace package to you.\u00a0 It\u2019s not based on how you\u2019re living at the point of the rapture.\u00a0 But people get confused on this and they want to build sort of a Protestant purgatory doctrine so they say well, only the really sanctified Christians will go up in the rapture, the others will be left behind.\u00a0 Or they take that same doctrine and they turn the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ into some terrifying experience and in the process they turn heaven into hell.\u00a0 So I hope that helps a little bit.\u00a0\u00a0 Any other questions, comments?\n\nThe question is what is the partial rapture idea based on.\u00a0 It goes back at least a hundred years to the writings of an individual, I think his last name was Lane, if I\u2019m not mistaken, and it\u2019s basically based on teachings that say you need to be waiting and watching for the return of Christ or you\u2019re going to go off into outer darkness where there\u2019s going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same set of tests people use to develop the doctrine of punitive damages at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a dispensational misapplication of the Bible; they\u2019re taking pre church age parables and turning that into something for the church age.\n\nThere\u2019s other verses that tell us that we ought to be watching for Christ, which is good, so from that they infer that if you\u2019re not watching for Christ then you\u2019re not going to go in the rapture and I\u2019m here to tell you that if you\u2019re \u201cin Christ,\u201d if you\u2019re a believer in Christ you can be in a moment of carnality and still be taken in the rapture because the rapture is the grace package God has given you.\u00a0 Grace means what?\u00a0 Unmerited favor, favor you don\u2019t deserve.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the whole point of grace, right.\n\nHis question is does the partial rapture doctrine come from misinterpretations of the letters in Revelation 2 and 3 and you\u2019re right, some people will interpret the overcomers, because it keeps saying \u201cto him who overcomes,\u201d as the winner Christians.\u00a0 So it\u2019s sort of this idea that it\u2019s only the \u201cwinner Christians\u201d that are going to receive these blessings and participate in the rapture when in reality if you just let John define what an overcomer is, if you go back to John\u2019s other book, 1 John 5:4-5 you\u2019ll see that the overcomer is the believer in Christ.\u00a0 [1 John 5:4-5, \u201cFor whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world\u2014our faith.\u00a0 [5] Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?\u201d]\n\nSo we are all overcomers in Christ already positionally because when we die we\u2019re going where?\u00a0 To heaven.\u00a0 So you\u2019re right, a lot of the teachings about partial rapture come from a misunderstanding of who the overcomers are in Revelation 2 and 3.\n\nHis question is on Revelation 3:10 and the partial rapture, it says, \u201cBecause you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.\u201d\u00a0 And again, this is a very good question because there\u2019s a lot of misunderstandings about verse 10, it makes it look like\u00a0 you\u2019ve got to do something, keep the word of His perseverance so you can avoid the hour of testing.\u00a0 I would recommend to you the\u2026 now here I\u2019m going to say something good about Zane Hodges, the scholarly article..\u00a0 let\u2019s subtract that, not Zane Hodges but John Niemela, a very good Greek scholar, and he argues that the sentence in verse 10 should actually end with \u201cperseverance.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, after perseverance there should be a period and not a comma.\u00a0 And in fact you can take that first part of verse 10 and actually make it part of the thought of verse 9.\u00a0 And he demonstrates grammatically why he thinks this is the case given John\u2019s other usages of this same expression.\n\nSo really the sentence should read as follows, verse 9: \u201cI will cause the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not but lie, I will keep them\u201d or \u201cI will make them come and bow down at Your feet and make them know that I have loved you,\u201d now there\u2019s not supposed to be a period there because in the original Greek you don\u2019t have periods or commas, and Niemela is arguing that the sentence should continue on, \u201cbecause you have kept the word of my perseverance.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s where you end verse 9.\u00a0 And then verse 10 simply says, it\u2019s just a promise, it\u2019s not conditional at all, \u201cI will also keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the earth and the world to test those who dwell on the earth.\u201d\u00a0 You say what is going on here, the pastor is rewriting the Bible.\u00a0 The article by John Niemela is very compelling grammatically and exegetically that the first part of verse 10 should really go with verse 9 and there should be a period in your English translation after the word \u201cperseverance.\u201d\u00a0 And if you buy into what Niemela is saying here, he makes a very good argument, then when Jesus says, \u201cI will also keep you from the hour of testing\u201d that is coming upon the whole world He\u2019s not making a conditional promise at all.\n\nSo I would encourage folks to read the article by John Niemela if you\u2019re interested in that subject and also Dennis Rokser does a summary of it in his newsletter called Grace for the Race<\/em>, which I\u2019ve signed up for and so I get that monthly, and he\u2019s the really the first person that brought this scholarly article, John Niemela, to my attention. So Rokser\u2019s summary of it is in Grace For the Race<\/em> and then John Niemela gives the exegetical arguments as to why the period should really be after perseverance, \u201cAnd I will also keep you from the hour of testing\u201d should be a whole new thought.\n\nSo therefore the rapture is not conditional at all on my performance.\u00a0 So it\u2019s something to think about, hopefully that helps a little bit.\n\nAny other comments or questions.\u00a0 I was afraid this might happen so I brought some of my own.\u00a0 Here is another question that came in online: Dr. Woods, I just listened to your interview on Stand up For the Truth, your sharing clarified some of my misunderstandings.\u00a0 Thank you for that but I still have a question about the woman in Revelation 12, their collectively the chosen people of Israel would flee into the wilderness and God would take care of her for three and a half\u00a0 years after Jesus was raptured.\u00a0 Does this talk about the Tribulation period when in 32 A.D. Jesus was crucified and resurrected and rose up to the heavens.\u00a0 He has been resurrected for almost 2,000 years.\u00a0 How do we justify the three and a half years in Revelation 12.\n\nSo let\u2019s take a look just for a minute in Revelation 12:1-5.\u00a0 It says, \u201cA great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; [2] and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.\u201d\u00a0 Now who is this woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the twelve stars?\u00a0 It\u2019s the nation of Israel and you can connect this with Genesis 37:9-10 where Joseph, as a 17 year old had a dream and he saw the sun and the moon and the eleven stars, Joseph being the twelfth star, bowing down to him and it\u2019s a reference to his promotion in the land of Egypt to second in command by age 30.\u00a0 And it goes on and it says, [3] Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon\u201d now who\u2019s the dragon?\u00a0 Satan.\u00a0 You drop down to verse 9 and Satan is identified as the dragon.\u00a0 Also in Revelation 20:2.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 20:2, \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;\u201d]\n\n[Revelation 12:2] \u201c and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.\u00a0 [3] Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were<\/em> seven diadems. [4] And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.\u00a0 [5] And she gave birth to a son, a male child,<\/em> who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.\u201d\u00a0 Who do you think the child is?\u00a0 Jesus, and He\u2019s identified here as the one who will rule the nations with a rod of iron.\u00a0 That comes right out of Psalm 2.\n\nAnd He \u201cwas caught up to God and to His throne.\u2026\u201d when did that happen?\u00a0 That\u2019s Acts 2, that\u2019s the ascension.\u00a0 So these clues are given to identify who this Son is; it\u2019s Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And what is being spoken of here is the angelic conflict that took place as Jesus was born into our world.\u00a0 Remember Herod was trying to kill all of the children in the Bethlehem area. Well, we know what was motivating Herod.\u00a0 Who was motivating Herod? \u00a0Satan!\u00a0 So it\u2019s the angelic conflict that took place in the heavenlies to prevent Jesus from being born. So these are all talking about things that have happened in the past.\n\nBut when you go to verse 6 it says, \u201cThen the woman\u201d\u00a0 now who\u2019s the woman?\u00a0 Israel, \u201cfled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.\u201d\u00a0 How long is one thousand two hundred and sixty days?\u00a0 That\u2019s three and a half years and that\u2019s the second half of the tribulation period.\n\nSo this is a picture, really prophetically, about the nation of Israel being persecuted by Satan in the second half of the tribulation period and how God protects Israel during that time period.\u00a0 So in between really verse 5 and verse 6 is a gap of about two thousand years.\u00a0 This is actually normal in Bible prophecy.\u00a0 It\u2019s very common for the Holy Spirit to present two events in a back to back fashion without mentioning the vast time period between the two events.\n\nYou might remember Isaiah 9:6, \u201cUnto us a child is born, a son is given,\u201d is that the first coming or second coming?\u00a0 The first coming.\u00a0 Then it goes on and it says, \u201cAnd the government will rest upon His shoulders,\u201d of the increase of peace and righteousness there will be no end.\u201d\u00a0 Is that the first coming or the second coming?\u00a0 The second coming, so the Holy Spirit just put two prophecies in a back to back fashion without mentioning the valley between the prophecies.\u00a0 [Isaiah 9:6, \u201cFor a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.\u00a0 [7] There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.\u201d]\n\nAnd that\u2019s really what\u2019s going on here in Revelation 12.\u00a0 He\u2019s giving information about Christ in the past to identify who He is; we need to identify who these signs are, we know these are signs because verse 1 says \u201ca great sign appeared in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 So it\u2019s dialing back into the past just for purposes of identification.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it makes reference to His birth, it makes references to His ascension, but then as is very common in prophecy it flashes forward into the future and we know what future time it\u2019s dealing with\u2014the second half of Daniel\u2019s week, the second half of the tribulation period when the nation of Israel is going to be under great distress and persecution.\n\nSo the question that\u2019s being asked here is why does this refer to the future when it\u2019s talking about things yet past, the ascension and so forth?\u00a0 And my argument is he is going back into the past only to identify who these figures are.\u00a0 But then as is very common in prophecy he leaps forward into the distant future and now that we have the basis for identifying these various characters he\u2019s using that knowledge to describe a future event.\u00a0 Does that help?\n\nAny other questions?\u00a0 [can\u2019t hear question]\u00a0 She\u2019s wanting a comment on Revelation 3:16.\u00a0 I assume you want me to comment on that because it looks like they can lose their salvation.\u00a0 Does Revelation 3:16 teach that a believer can lose their salvation.\u00a0 He says over in Revelation 316, \u201c'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.\u201d\u00a0 So my take on that is it\u2019s not a statement you can lose your salvation; it\u2019s a statement of the nauseous feeling that Christ experiences when He looks at the church in this condition because He basically says I wish you were hot or I wish you were cold because you can do something with hot water, you can do your laundry or wash dishes or a number of things, and you can do something with cool water, you can quench thirst, but what can\u00a0 you really do with lukewarm water.\u00a0 It\u2019s not good for anything, it\u2019s sort of like the salt that Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount, when salt loses It\u2019s saltiness, it\u2019s not good for anything.\n\nSo when the church reaches that condition he\u2019s not saying you\u2019re going to lose your salvation. What He says is when I look at\u00a0 your life I want to throw up.\u00a0 In other words, My looking at your spiritual condition makes me nauseous, and we know that they\u2019re not going to lose their salvation because if you look at verse 19, He says, \u201cThose whom I love, I reprove and\u201d what?\u00a0 What does verse 19 say, \u201cThose whom I love, I reprove and\u201d what? \u201cdiscipline\u201d so they are candidates for divine discipline. Divine discipline is a mark of God\u2019s ownership over us, \u201cWhom the Lord loves the Lord disciplines\u201d or chastens, I\u2019ve never disciplined the neighbor\u2019s kids, although I\u2019ve thought about it a couple of times.\u00a0 But you discipline\u00a0 your own kids.\n\nSo the whole subject matter here is not loss of salvation, it\u2019s they\u2019re candidates of divine discipline and it\u2019s not a statement you can lose your salvation, it\u2019s this idea that the Lord is nauseous when He looks at His church in this condition, which makes them ripe, not for disownership but for discipline.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a statement you can lose your salvation; it\u2019s this idea that the Lord is nauseous when He looks at His church in this condition, which makes them right, not for disownership but discipline.\u00a0 So if you connect verse 16 to verse 19 I think\u00a0 you\u2019ll see that.\u00a0 Any other questions.\n\nLet me just close with this one.\u00a0 If the Jews would have accepted Jesus as their Messiah He would have set up the kingdom at His first coming as I understand you.\u00a0 What about the cross and Isaiah 53?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that the same argument you make against those who think the reoffer of the kingdom is in the book of Acts.\u00a0 You say that since Israel is already doomed, the tribulation period, Matthew 22-25, they can\u2019t have another chance in the book of Acts, and since the Old Testament predicts the national rejection of the cross then the offer of the kingdom in the Gospels can\u2019t be genuine either, can it?\n\nSo this has a couple of questions and this really gets to the Wednesday night teaching.\u00a0 A lot of people teach that the kingdom is reoffered in the book of Acts to Israel, just like it was offered to Israel in the Gospels.\u00a0 And in one of our lessons I gave ten reasons why I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case.\u00a0 The expression, \u201crepent for the kingdom of God\u201d which is so prominent early in the Gospels, you don\u2019t find that expression in the book of Acts.\u00a0 So the kingdom is not being reoffered to Israel in the Book of Acts.\u00a0 What is being offered is the gospel, the gospel of personal salvation so as to be saved.\n\nAnd the second part of this question is if Israel had accepted the offer of the kingdom in the gospels and the kingdom had been set up then what do you do with all of the prophecies about the cross?\u00a0 And the answer to that basically is God always knew Israel would not accept the offer.\u00a0 He knew it would be rejected.\u00a0 The offer was still legitimate, the offer was still genuine but He always knew that this offer would be turned down and that the prophecies of Isaiah 53 would be fulfilled. So even though it was predetermined that the Messiah would be cut off, He would be crucified and inherit nothing, that doesn\u2019t change the fact that the offer of the kingdom was still legitimate; it\u2019s just God knew what the result would be.\n\nI don\u2019t know how much more we want to get into that.\u00a0 People will often times ask well, what if Israel had accepted the kingdom?\u00a0 What would have happened then?\u00a0 That\u2019s kind of like asking what if Eve and Adam and never sinned in Eden?\u00a0 What would have happened then?\u00a0 What would have happened to the prophecies of the Messiah being slain from the foundation of the earth?\u00a0 It\u2019s a hypothetical question that I don\u2019t really know if I can answer but I just know that the offer was real, the offer was legitimate,\u00a0 but God knew what the outcome would be.\n\nDwight Pentecost and Arnold Fruchtenbaum have this view that even if the Jews had enthroned Christ the Romans still would have come and killed Christ and thus fulfilled Isaiah 53.\u00a0 That\u2019s their attempt to resolve this controversy.\u00a0 My answer is I really don\u2019t know, it\u2019s a hypothetical question, I don\u2019t know if I can answer.\u00a0 I just know that the offer was real, that\u2019s the way it reads in the Gospels and God knew what the result would be.\u00a0 And just because God knew what the result would be didn\u2019t mean that the offer was not legitimate back in the first century.\u00a0 So I hope that helps a little bit on a difficult question.\n\nAnyway, I hope you found this a little bit instructive; a little different way of doing things and next week is our church wide meeting so we won\u2019t be meeting, so the following Sunday we\u2019ll start the study on the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0 So the soteriology series is permanently over at this point, I know I\u2019ve said that for about three months but this time we really mean it and let\u2019s pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re thankful for Your Word, we\u2019re thankful for people that are hungry for it and we\u2019re thankful for their questions and we just ask that You use these times to illuminate Your truth to us and help us to get a better understanding of things. We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t