But What About the Bema Seat Judgment?
Why, when the Bible so clearly says that saved-yet-carnal Christians do not get raptured, did so many of us (including myself) long think that they do. The first thing I thought of in pondering this question was the concept of the judgement/bema seat of Christ…
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Rom 14:10-12, KJV.
It is usually assumed this means that all saved Christians will stand before this judgement seat at the same time…that what is brought to view here is a single event…both merely saved and saved-and-faithful Christians together facing the review of their works at the same time immediately following the Rapture of the Church. This is merely an assumption. The judgment seat of Christ is definitely a place, not necessarily a moment in time, not necessarily a single event. It could be that merely saved Christians face the judgement seat of Christ at the end of the Millennium while saved-and-faithful Christians face the judgement seat of Christ shortly after the Rapture. We believe this is the case.
I think I know why we tend to think this judgement seat refers to a single event…because Rom 14:10-12 is naturally explained by 1Cor 3:13-15…
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day [of that man’s judgement] shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
I love the black and white Bible proof we find here of once-saved-always-saved. What I don’t love is how we tend to think of “the day” here as referring to the day of Jesus’ coming. The text does not provide nor require this interpretation. I believe the “fire” here to be the searching, transforming fire of the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16), not the physical fire of judgement day; notice, “he himself shall be saved…as by fire.” The “day” mentioned could simply be referring to the day of that person’s judgement be it before or at the end of the Millennium. Also, in one sense the “day of the Lord” (Sabbath) is the Millennium (seventh “day” of world history), and this “day” will in fact declare of what sort a man’s work was in that if he is an immortal reigning with Christ through that “day” or if he is not present for that “day” or is a mortal within that “day” everyone will see the outline of his reward or lack thereof and thus know of what sort his work was. So really, there is no necessity of interpreting the “judgement seat of Christ” as a one-time event immediately following the Rapture.
Recall the condition of the ultimate inheritance: “joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him” (Rom 8:17).
Revelation 20:4 provides us the example of who will be raised in the first resurrection to be a joint-heir with Christ: “them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands” (Rev 20:4). The verse concludes with the phrase, “they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Blessed and holy [like example in vs 4] is he that hath part in the first resurrection…they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired… I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened… And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Rev 20:6, 7, 12, 15.
Born again believers who finished their mortal course “blessed and holy” rise “in the first resurrection” and are made “joint-heirs with Christ” for the Millennium. At the end of the 1000 years, the “rest of the dead” (vs 5) are resurrected. These would include three major groups: 1) the unsaved of all ages, 2) the saved yet carnal, backslidden, and/or apostate of all ages, and 3) the mortal saved-to-serve Christians of the Millennium. Obviously, group 1 will not have their names found in the Book of Life and will be cast into the lake of fire. Groups 2 and 3 will be found in the Book of Life and will begin their eternal lives in the Eternal State.
The first resurrection (including both resurrections at the Rapture and at the Second Coming) is for the “blessed and holy.” The last resurrection at the end of the Millennium is for the unholy. Yet many of those raised in the final resurrection are saved and will then receive their inheritance – just God (Rom 8:17).
Notice that immediately following the final resurrection at the end of the 1000 years…
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened…the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works…And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Rev 20:12, 15.
The works of the dead (including all saved-yet-carnal Christians of the ages) are all examined in this judgement. So this must be the “judgement seat of Christ” experience for saved-yet-carnal Christians. “Every man's work shall be made manifest” (1Cor 3:13).
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Rom 14:10-12, KJV.
It is widely understood that Satan will not be made to bow to God and confess (so not “every knee” yet) until the very end of the Story of Redemption on the shores of the Lake of Fire, that is, soon after the final resurrection described at the end of Rev 20. If this is indeed the case, then the very passage which points out the Bema Seat Judgement points us forward to the final resurrection. Strange how Christians today usually imagine that this Judgement must only take place immediately following the Rapture…this is clearly not what the Bible indicates. There can be (and is) more than one Bema Seat Judgement event.
I think it is important to notice that while the works of everyone resurrected at the end of the 1000 years are all judged, the decision as to whether or not to sentence anyone to the Second Death is made based only on whether or not his/her name is found written in the Book of Life (Rev 20:15).
So what is the Book of Life is all about?
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psa 139:16, ESV
Our whole divinely anticipated lives are recorded in the Lord’s book before we are born. We start our lives with our names in the Book of Life. Naturally.
“But the LORD said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book’” (Ex 32:33, ESV). The very first sin we commit results in our names being blotted out of the Book of Life, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). The rest of that verse says, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23).
If we accept this “unspeakable gift” (2Cor 9:15) by faith…
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Jn 5:24, ESV.
…then our names are reinstated in the Book of Life, and their position therein will never again be in question (“come into judgement”). All saved people have their names irrevocably sealed into the Book of Life, praise God!
So even though saved-yet-carnal Christians will have all their works judged at their Bema Seat Judgement after the Millennium and final resurrection, they cannot be thrown into the Lake of Fire to experience the Second Death because their names are certainly retained in Book of Life.
If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 1Cor 3:14-15, KJV.