The Millennial Kingdom and Salvation
In a recent post, I wrote about how "millenarianism" or "chiliasm" was a widespread view in the first few centuries of the early church. This is the belief that at the Lord's return and consequent resurrection of the believers, the Lord will establish a visible "thousand-year" kingdom (cf. Rev. 20:1-9) on earth prior to the general resurrection and final judgment and restoration of all things.
However, the belief fell into disfavor and condemned as heresy when certain heretical teachers started pushing carnal understandings of the millennial kingdom. This scandalized certain influential Christians of the day and caused them to oppose the teachings, which cemented amillennialism into the traditions of the church. I suggested that the ones who rejected the concept of the millennial kingdom at that time were reacting to the more heretical forms. Hence, they were not so conversant with the significance of the millennial kingdom.
In this post I want to show that the dismissal of the early belief millennial kingdom sheds light upon today's controversies about whether "salvation" is eternally secure or can be lost, such that many Christians today are entrenched in doctrinal systems that have them believing partial truths rather than the whole truth as revealed in Scripture.
To start, here is a brief overview of my view concerning the history of the salvation the saints have in Christ, and where the millennial kingdom fits in.
A Brief History of the Salvation of the Believers
Those who are elect, chosen and called receive eternal salvation as a free gift of God's grace through faith (Eph. 2:4-8), and justified forensically by the shedding of Christ's precious blood in His redemptive work on the cross. Simultaneously they are regenerated, meaning they are born of God as children of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit and joined to the Lord as one spirit to become partakers of the Holy Spirit and partakers of the divine nature (1 Pet. 1:3; John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Heb. 6:4; 2 Pet. 1:4). These matters are eternally secure once they have been worked out, but they are only the "minimum" of salvation. God's ultimate goal is to not only save us in our standing, but to Christify us in our living, being, constitution, experience and union with Him.
Hence, beginning from this baseline of salvation they are transformed through growth in the divine life by Christ's making their home in their hearts (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 3:17), and they serve the Lord in His present kingdom (Rom. 14:17) as members of His Body according to their measure of grace (Rom. 12:4, 6; Matt. 25:14-15) to cause the growth, maturity, building up and full Christification of the church as the corporate kingdom, Body, dwelling place and bride of Christ. However, the success of their living and the condition of their lives as believers is not without consequence. Some genuine believers become stumbled and defeated in the course of their Christian life, while others overcome to mature and bear fruit (Eph. 4:13-14; John 15:5; 2 Pet. 1:18).
When the Lord Jesus returns, the believers will be raised, and He will set up His judgment seat to judge the believers concerning their life and work in this age (Rev. 22:12; Rom. 14:12; 2 Cor. 5:10). Because only some of the believers will be "ripe" at the time of this judgment, this will result in the mature, overcoming believers being rewarded with the full enjoyment of Christ and co-reign with Him in the kingdom age of "one thousand years" (perhaps a figurative number, but referring to a distinct period or age before the final consummation nevertheless, Matt. 25:21, 23; Rev. 20:4). The defeated believers, however, will "suffer loss" by being excluded from the enjoyment of this aspect of the kingdom and disciplined by the Lord during this time for their completing and perfecting (Matt. 25:10-12, 24-30). At the end of this thousand year "Sabbath rest," all the now-fully transformed and perfected believers will enter into the eternal blessings of God in union with God as the New Jerusalem in the restored heavens and earth (Rev. 22:3-5).
I believe this is the truth revealed in Scripture.
All saved believers will inevitably end up in the New Jerusalem (the final expression of the kingdom) in full communion with God, but not all saved believers will enter into the "reward" in the millennial kingdom even though they are eternally saved.
Stated another way, a "saved" believer may be securely and eternally saved in their standing before God (saved forever from hell and condemnation), yet still not be "saved enough" in their maturity in time to be qualified to enter into the full enjoyment of the "millennial kingdom" in the coming age.
This is why some why some Scriptures indicate that "salvation" is in some regard once-and-for-all, and other Scriptures indicate that "salvation" is some regard a process, that "salvation" is in some sense eternally secure, and yet that "salvation" can in some sense be lost.
These issues have divided Christians for centuries without resolution because the Bible actually contains verses that support both conclusions: that salvation is once-and-for-all and secure; salvation is a process, and can be fallen away from.
Perhaps you are not convinced that there is anything secure or once-and-for-all about salvation. Or conversely, perhaps you are not convinced that there is anything than can be lost about salvation such that we need to progress in salvation in cooperation with God's grace. Perhaps you believe it is pious to be agnostic about your salvation, or perhaps you believe it is pious to be assured.
In response, I want to demonstrate that Scripture reveals that someone who is a believer today is eternally saved in their standing of not perishing forever in hell. Yet, that there is the real possibility, accompanied with severe consequences, that they may fall short in their progressing in salvation during this life. We need to believe both in order to not make God's written word void.
I hope the former section will cause you to love God more, and your heart to burn within you as you have an eternal standing in Him because of His marvelous works. I hope you will find the latter section as sobering and inspiring of watchfulness and diligence as I do.
Eternal Salvation Cannot Be Lost
The Scriptures repeatedly testify that we are "saved" with assurance and security, not with uncertainty or ambiguity, and that we will not perish once we are saved. The Scriptures testify of this in at least the following thirteen ways, by revealing that our salvation in the Triune God is:
1. According to God's Unchangeable Will
We have been made children of God and have received sonship not according to our condition but according to the predetermined will and good pleasure of God (Eph. 1:5). God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own will and purpose (2 Tim. 1:9). John 6:39 reads, "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up in the last day." The will of God the Father concerning our salvation is that none of those who have been given to the Son should be lost, and God's will never changes (Heb. 6:17).
2. According to God's Love
We are saved not because we loved God but because He loved us (1 John 4:10). Our love may easily change, but God's love is deeper than the love of a mother (Isa. 49:15); it is eternal (Jer. 31:3), to the uttermost (John 13:1), and unchanging. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Further, this love is not just a matter of God loving everyone whether they go to heaven or hell, for this love is "in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:25-20): the love with which He loves us is based upon the righteous ground of Christ's redemption, giving us the forensic, judicial assurance that nothing can separate the elect from Him.
3. According to God's Election
God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), and it was not we who selected Him but He who selected us (John 15:14). God chose us according to His purpose and grace, not according to our works (Rom. 9:11; 2 Tim. 1:9). Moreover, God's gifts and calling are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). And those whom the Father has predestined are, from an eternal perspective, as good as conformed unto the image of His Son and glorified:
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;
And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.
-Rom. 8:29-30
4. According to God's Grace
Eph. 2:4-9 reveals that we are not saved by ourselves nor by our works but by the grace of God as a free gift (Eph. 2:4-9). In this passage, Paul speaks of our being "saved" and our being "raise up together with Him and seated together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus" in the past tense, because in eternity it is as good as accomplished in anyone who has received the free gift of grace. Our self and works may change, but the grace of God is constant and unchanging, given to us in Christ Jesus before the times of the ages (2 Tim. 1:9).
5. According to God's Righteousness
Romans 3:26 says, "With a view to the demonstrating of His righteousness in the present time, so that He might be righteous and the One who justifies him who is of the faith of Jesus." God demonstrates His righteousness through the Lord Jesus paying our debt of sin on the cross for us, thereby satisfying the requirement of God's righteousness and making our sins as white as snow (Isa. 1:18). Consequently, God must save us if we are in Christ. If God were to let His chosen people fall into hell, condemnation and eternal perdition as the penalty for sins already paid for on the cross, He would fall into unrighteousness. However, this will never happen, because righteousness is the foundation of God's throne (Psa. 89:14) and is solid and unmovable. The righteousness of God is revealed in His saving us (Rom. 1:16-17). We are justified by God, and God must save us because who can bring a charge against God's chosen ones? (Rom. 8:33).
6. According to God's Almighty Hand
In John 10:29, the Lord Jesus said the following concerning His sheep: "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand" (John 10:29). 1 Pet. 1:5 says we "are being guarded by the power of God through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time."
7. According to God's Eternal Life
The Lord Jesus said, "I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever" (John 10:28). The divine life we have received by being born of God by believing into and receiving the Lord Jesus (John 1:12-13) is eternal in quality, extent and time, giving us an eternal relationship the Father (John 3:16; 1 John 3:1). For us to perish forever means that the eternal life in us would have to die out, but something that is eternal cannot change.
8. According to God's Unbreakable Covenant
God has made a covenant to save us (Matt. 26:28) and has written the law of life within us that He will "never remember our sins" (Heb. 8:8-13). God will be faithful to this promise, for His covenant cannot be altered (Psa. 89:34).
9. According to Christ's Redemption
Hebrews 5:9 declares that the Lord has become the source of eternal salvation unto us, and Hebrews 10:14: "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." That by one offering He has perfected us forever is an accomplished fact, enabling Him to "save us forever" (Heb. 7:25). Therefore: "Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died and, rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us" (Rom. 8:34). For us to perish forever means that Christ has stopped His interceding for us. No one can negate the Lord's redemption which He eternally accomplished for us by His death and resurrection, and no one can condemn us. Therefore, our salvation is eternally secure.
10. According to Christ's Power
"And I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28). The Lord and God are one. He is equal with God. Hence, His hand is as powerful as God's hand, therefore we shall perish forever by no means. Further, if we are His, we are not only in His hands outwardly, but He is in us (2 Cor. 13:5; Rom. 8:10; Col. 1:27; Gal. 4:19) and we have been organically joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). For us to fall into eternal perdition beyond hope would mean that God could will that this bond could be broken forever, such that we could be divested of the indwelling Christ we once received never to receive Him again.
11. According to the Spirit
The Lord Jesus said, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever." The Spirit is also God, and once He has been given to us He will be with us forever. This Holy Spirit not only indwells us, but we have been "sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise" as a pledge of our inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). As long as the Spirit is in us, we have the hope of the promise. For us to perish forever would mean that the Spirit's indwelling could be retracted, and His seal revoked. The Scriptures speak of no such thing.
12. According to Christ's Unfailing Promise
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and him who comes to Me I shall by no means cast out" (John 6:37).
13. According to God Himself
In God there is no shadow cast by turning (James 1:17) and He is the unchangeable One (Mal. 3:6). Our condition and situation cannot affect His nature or what He has done for us. Once you are born of God, not even an act of will can cause you to be un-born. Once God regenerates you through "the incorruptible seed, the living and abiding word of God," (1 Pet. 1:23) you can do nothing to cause that seed to become extinguished.
Let me state unequivocally that I believe our eternal salvation is secure.
Yet Salvation Can Be Missed
Nevertheless, many other verses indicate that "salvation" is also a process not written in stone.
When read, many of the following passages traditionally have cast doubt upon the security of salvation.
As many Arminianists have pointed out, persons who presumably once had faith can:
-become unable to renew themselves unto repentance, put the Lord to open shame, and be burned (Heb. 6:4-8)
-become high-minded concerning their salvation and thus "cut off" (Rom. 11:17-22)
-become "shipwrecked concerning the faith" (1 Tim. 1:19-20)
-"depart from the faith" (1 Tim. 4:1)
-"turn aside from the faith after Satan" (1 Tim. 5:15)
-"be led away from the faith" (1 Tim. 6:10)
-"misaim regarding the faith (1 Tim. 6: 21)
-"overthrow the faith of others" (2 Tim. 2:18)
Additionally:-"if we deny Him, He will deny us" (2 Tim. 2:12)
-those who receive grace of God may do so in vain (2 Cor. 6:1)
-we may "fall away from grace" and be "severed from Christ" (Gal. 5:4)
-we may "come short of grace" (Heb. 12:15)
-those who fall away are those who last only for a time, drawing back in the time of trial (Matt. 13:20-21; Luke 8:13)
-it seems the believer is enjoined to suffer a lifelong struggle, for only he who "endures to the end shall be saved," and many who seek to enter through the narrow door "will not be strong enough" (Matt. 10:22; Luke 13:24)
-it seems our "hope" is conditional because "narrow is the gate and constricted is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it" (Matt. 7:14)
-it seems predestination is of no assurance, because we must be diligent to make our calling and selection firm, or otherwise stumble (2 Pet. 1:10)
Furthermore, the Scriptures strongly suggest that our "salvation" will be determined by living and conduct:-In the Lord's ministry, the Lord compared His disciples (His elect) to salt that can become tasteless and be "cast out" (Matt. 5:13; Luke 14:33-35).
-Although they were freed from the ritual and ineffectiveness of the Mosaic law, the disciples were nevertheless charged to live according to an even higher righteousness, the perfect righteousness of the Father (Matt. 5:48)
-In consequence, the Lord warned that those who did not live by the Father's nature in Christ's resurrection would be subject to a chastening likened to fire (v. 22), imprisonment (v. 25) and the destruction of their house (7:27), and would be excluded from the kingdom and denounced as workers of lawlessness, for not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter into the kingdom the heavens, but he who does the will of the Father in heaven" (v.21-23)
-Unless our righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20)
-If we do not forgive our brothers from our heart, neither will the Father forgive us (Matt. 6:14-15; Mark 11:25-26)--in fact, he will even deliver us to the torturers until we repay all that is owed (Matt. 18:34-35).
-The Lord warned the apostles who were sent to preach the gospel of the kingdom that they might fail under persecution, and if any were to deny Him before men, He would deny them before the Father (Matt. 10:33)
-Even apostle Paul feared that he might be disapproved, rejected and found unworthy of the prize in his commission for the gospel (1 Cor. 9:27)
-The Lord said that disciples may be excluded from the kingdom for offenses and causes of stumbling with "your brother" and "the church" (Matt. 18:6; 15-17; 32-35)
-The disciples are likened to householders who need to be on alert, for their house may be broken into by the thief because they do not know on what day their Lord comes (Matt. 24:43-44)
-The disciples are likened to slaves in the Lord's household, who may behave evilly and be cut asunder at the return of their Master (Matt. 24:45-51)
-The disciples are likened to ten virgins, of whom five were foolish and had insufficient oil, and thus were excluded from the marriage feast, to whom the Lord will say, "I do not know you" (Matt. 25:1-13)
-The disciples are likened to slaves who may be evil and slothful in handling the Lord's possessions, and consequently denied co-ruling with him in the coming kingdom and even thrown into "outer darkness" (Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 12:42-48).
-The disciples are likened to branches on the vine who may not bear fruit and thus cut off from participation in riches of the life of the vine, and even subject to chastening (burning) (John 15:6).
-The believers must walk according to the spirit, and by the Spirit put to the death the practices of the body lest they suffer spiritual death (Rom. 8:4, 13)
-They must struggle to enter in through the narrow door, for many will not be able (Luke 13:24)
-They must "be the more diligent" to make their calling and selection firm, knowing the possibility of stumbling (2 Pet. 1:10)
-The believers must "work out their own salvation in fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12)
-Regenerated but immature and unstable believers must "be diligent" to enter into the Sabbath rest, for many fall into disobedience (Heb. 4:11)
-"Partakers of Christ" and "partakers of the Holy Spirit" may become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and fall away from the living God," resulting in the burning of their thorns and thistles (Heb. 3:12-19; 6:4-8)
-The burning of these thorns and thistles are comparable to the "wood, grass and stubble," the worthless materials that some believers use to build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, that will be tested by fire at the Lord's coming when He judges all the believers, some of whom will "suffer loss" but still be saved, "yet so as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:11-15)
-As little children, we need to abide in Him or else we may be put to shame from Him at His coming (1 John 2:28)
-In Revelation 2-3, the Lord exhorts the seven churches to overcome that they may receive reward (Rev. 2:7, 10, 17, 26-28: 3:5, 12, 21), implying that those who do not overcome would be subject in some sense to the "second death" (2:11), being caught unaware by the Lord coming as a thief in the night (3:3), having their name erased from the book of life (3:5) and being spewed out of the Lord's mouth (3:16)
-Whoever wants to follow the Lord must deny himself, deny his soul-life, take up His cross daily and follow Him, for He who does not take up his cross and follow Him is not worthy of Him and cannot be His disciple, for he wishes to save his life will lose it and he who loses his life for His sake will find it (Matt. 10:38; 16:24-27; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 9:23, 14:27; 17:33)
-Judgment begins the household of God (1 Pet. 4:17) which is the church (1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 3:6, 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:19)
Many of these warnings sound very severe and decisive in their verdict, and many of them sound like they are directed to believers. Thus, the majority of these verses have been conventionally interpreted as referring to the dangers of perishing forever in hell if we are not faithful to perform. They are then often utilized to explain away the verses that indicate the security of our salvation.
The Difference Between Eternal Salvation and Reward
However, I believe most of these verses are not dealing with being "saved in the end" versus condemned to eternal perdition in hell (the penalty of sin). Rather, they are dealing with discipline/loss of reward after the Lord's coming but before all the believers enter into full communion with God during the "thousand year" millennial kingdom on earth.
The New Testament clearly reveals that all believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ to be recompensed for their living and work (Rom. 14:10-12, 2 Cor. 5:10, Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12).
And 1 Cor. 3:8, 13-15 is just one passage that clearly reveals that there is a category of believer who will receive a "reward" on top of their salvation, and another category of believer that will "suffer loss" and yet still be saved, "yet so as through fire."
If we rightly divide the matter of eternal salvation and reward in the coming kingdom, as well as distinguish eternal perdition and temporary chastisement in the coming kingdom, we will see that the many passages that speak of our not entering the "kingdom of heavens" due to our lack of works are not speaking of our perishing forever in hell but of our being temporarily excluded from the enjoyment of the bright glory of the kingdom in the coming age.
Consequences: Extreme Liturgical Doubt; Imparted vs. Infused Righteousness; Calvinism vs. Arminianism; Extreme Evangelical Assurance; Purgatory
Rejecting the millennium kingdom and the clear understanding of reward and chastening linked to it has produced many shortsighted contentions about salvation as the various traditions of Christianity have become set in their ways.
Some of the consequences include:
-Both the eastern Orthodox and western Catholic churches, seeing salvation only as process toward the highest goal, have difficulty seeing and emphasizing any definitive, conclusive and secure aspects of the believer's eternal salvation. This issues in doubt, agnosticism, fogginess and confusion about our eternal standing before God in Christ, and assurance of salvation is readily marked out as the mortal sin of presumption, despite the fact that the apostle Paul, shortly before he was martyred, said that he knew not only that he would be saved but that he would receive a reward (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
-Catholic and Reformed believers have difficulty seeing eye to eye on the matter of justification. They don't reckon that forensic, imputed righteousness is for eternal salvation while subjective, infused righteousness is for reward in the coming age.
-Calvinists and Arminianists argue over doctrine while looking through a glass darkly.
When faced with the fact that many professing Christians fall into unbelief, carnality, unrepentant sin, or doctrinal error, many Arminianists conclude that our salvation vacillates with our will and condition, and thus we must engage in a lifelong struggle of the will to overcome sin and stay in the faith.
But many Reformed theologians and other once-saved-always-saved proponents simply conclude that all of those professing Christians who end up defeated were never genuine believers among the elect in the first place, but rather the tares (false believers) sown by the enemy in with the wheat (true believers) until the harvest (Matt. 13:25-30), and the "ones who went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out that they might be manifested that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:17).
This, of course, makes it rather troublesome to tell whether you or anyone else is among the elect who will persevere. As many of us have the concept that a person who has genuine, saving faith will inevitably bear fruit ("faith without works is dead"), one can only discern who is among the elect by continually looking for visible evidences of salvation in their work and living, which easily leads to doubt in many believers' experience. In practice, a person who believes in theory that the elect will persevere unto salvation gains no more assurance than someone who believes salvation requires a process of perseverance. This daily struggle to measure up through our obedience for signs of perseverance ("when will I know that I am a real Christian?")ends up as Arminianism cloaked as Calvinism, and can be deeply damaging to the inner lives of the believers.
-The matter of reward also exposes the shortcomings of bumper-sticker Christianity and the leaven of Left-behind theology in much of evangelical Christianity. Many evangelical Christians are being taught that the entirety of the gospel is "believe, receive 1 get-out-of-hell-free card," and that immediately after their death or the Lord's return they will be resurrected or raptured and will enter directly into "heaven" for eternity, regardless of how carnal, worldly, rebellious, unrepentant, immature or self-interested they still are. This sets up dear believers for fruitless living based on flawed expectations, as well as for a rude awakening at the judgment seat of Christ. Because the presumption is that believers all "go to heaven" (as if that were the point of salvation) regardless of the quality of their fruits, the believers are not held accountable for their lives in any compelling way. The lack of realization that God will judge His people (Heb. 10:30-31) and burn their worthless works with holy fire (1 Cor. 3:13-15; Heb. 6:4-8) has issued in widespread susceptibility to false self-help and prosperity gospels, the attitude that "good intentions" but not holiness is all that counts in our gospel preaching methods and church practices, and entertainment industry mixed with Christian religion masquerading as true worship within much of evangelical Christianity.
-This matter also casts light on the development of the doctrine of purgatory.
In both the east and west, it was very common for early Christian teachers to opine that believers who die in an impure, unsanctified, unfit, unfaithful--or just insufficiently matured and transformed--condition would enter into full communion with God only after undergoing a further process of discipline and transformation after death.
The millennial kingdom, as a definite future age following the Lord's coming, was conceived of by some prominent writers in the early church as the period of time in which the perfection and completion of the believers and the renewal of the earth could take place, and various writers offered diverse opinions on the specifics. Irenaeus, relying heavily on Scripture to support his views, wrote that the righteous who are raised bodily in "the resurrection of the just" would inherit a visible kingdom on earth. During this period, "those who are worthy are accustomed gradually to partake of the divine nature," the individual saints would be disciplined before flourishing in this kingdom and would have different ranks, and the creation would be gradually restored, until the the time of the general resurrection and the final making of all things new that man may then "truly dwell in the city of God." (link). Tertullian, an enthusiastic millenarian, speculated that the matured believers would rise bodily immediately at the Lord's coming, and then that during the span of the thousand-year kingdom there would be completed the resurrection of rest of the saints, who would “rise sooner or later according to their deserts”(Against Marcion, Book 3, chapter 25).
Augustine was also of the opinion that the believers needed to be perfected after death, but by the time he began developing his thoughts about the topic he had already rejected this Raison d'être of the future millennial age.
Lacking a ready vehicle for the future discipline and completion of the unfit believers, yet being a systematic thinker compelled to find one, he proposed an extra-scriptural eschatology in which the believers would be disciplined--not in a future age but in another "world" that they would enter into immediately after death in which they would experience "purgatorial" punishments, torments and fire.
This became one of the foundations for the development of the teaching of purgatory, often conceived as a sin-purging diffusion gradient in an alternate realm outside time and space through which prayers push deceased repentants forth.
These are D. M. Panton's (very Protestant, but very thought-provoking) words on how the prospect of the millennial kingdom reward is not only relevant to our Christian life, but also explains the development of the teaching of purgatory, as given in his book The Judgment Seat of Christ:
It is obvious that the truth of a believer’s judgment, so abundantly stated in the Scriptures, is of vast practical moment, and, once it lays its grip upon a soul, simply incalculable in its motive power. For, contrary to what is sometimes supposed, it greatly reinforces our assurance of eternal life; because, by disentangling countless conditioned promises of reward from the simple assurance of eternal life granted on bare faith, it isolates the unconditioned gift into a radiant light, while withdrawing into the sphere of reward numerous menacing passages, expressive of extreme difficulty and doubt, which have ever been the strongholds of Rome. By reassuring of eternal safety, while yet warning of Millennial peril, it frees the soul for an arrow-flight straight to God’s highest and best. Moreover, of all Scripture truths none is more needed by the Church of Christ. Augustine, as remarkable a servant as God ever had, says that no more constant or powerful motive actuated his discipleship than the knowledge that he must give account; and no Christian would dare plunge into the worldliness and sin now rampant amongst multitudes of true believers had the truth our Lord expresses to Thyatira been once burnt home to the soul ;-" All the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I wilt give unto each one of you according to your works" (Rev. 2:23). And finally, it brings to bear upon the redeemed heart, with thrilling power, the full impact of facts. If a literal bodily removal from coming horrors, if literal bursting from the tombs with the throbbings of immortal life, if literal thrones, and a literal authority over the nations, walking with Christ in white -if all these are contingent on holiness and suffering, all other ambitions become as dust, and martyrdom itself no excessive price. But not the least of its advantages is the light it casts on Roman error, and how that error arose; and, above all, on the Roman doctrine of purgatory. For (we first observe) it is a supreme peculiarity of our Lord’s love to His own that it can never stop short of the perfection of the person loved. "As many as I love, I reprove and chasten" (Rev. 3:19) : "He chastens us for our profit, that we may become partakers of His holiness" (Heb. 12:10). His holiness is perfection; so that our discipline, however drastic or prolonged, is never a proof of His enmity, but of His love; and is never a sign-either now, or at the Judgment Seat-of a disciple’s ultimate destruction, but of his ultimate perfection. Where others show their love by indulgence, Christ shows His by chastisement. "Every branch in Me that beareth fruit, He PURGETH it" (John 15:2). Thus if the judgment of believers, and the Scripture so calls it (I Cor. 11:32), is in full operation (as all admit) in the day of grace itself, it is obvious that such judgment, even to the infliction of death here (1 Cor. 11:30) or hereafter (Luke 12:46), can be no contravention of the principles of grace: our chastisement is our highway to perfection.
Please post with any questions.
I usually enjoy writing more devotional things, but I've been burdened with this matter for awhile and had to get it off my chest. :)
However, the belief fell into disfavor and condemned as heresy when certain heretical teachers started pushing carnal understandings of the millennial kingdom. This scandalized certain influential Christians of the day and caused them to oppose the teachings, which cemented amillennialism into the traditions of the church. I suggested that the ones who rejected the concept of the millennial kingdom at that time were reacting to the more heretical forms. Hence, they were not so conversant with the significance of the millennial kingdom.
In this post I want to show that the dismissal of the early belief millennial kingdom sheds light upon today's controversies about whether "salvation" is eternally secure or can be lost, such that many Christians today are entrenched in doctrinal systems that have them believing partial truths rather than the whole truth as revealed in Scripture.
To start, here is a brief overview of my view concerning the history of the salvation the saints have in Christ, and where the millennial kingdom fits in.
A Brief History of the Salvation of the Believers
Those who are elect, chosen and called receive eternal salvation as a free gift of God's grace through faith (Eph. 2:4-8), and justified forensically by the shedding of Christ's precious blood in His redemptive work on the cross. Simultaneously they are regenerated, meaning they are born of God as children of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit and joined to the Lord as one spirit to become partakers of the Holy Spirit and partakers of the divine nature (1 Pet. 1:3; John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Heb. 6:4; 2 Pet. 1:4). These matters are eternally secure once they have been worked out, but they are only the "minimum" of salvation. God's ultimate goal is to not only save us in our standing, but to Christify us in our living, being, constitution, experience and union with Him.
Hence, beginning from this baseline of salvation they are transformed through growth in the divine life by Christ's making their home in their hearts (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 3:17), and they serve the Lord in His present kingdom (Rom. 14:17) as members of His Body according to their measure of grace (Rom. 12:4, 6; Matt. 25:14-15) to cause the growth, maturity, building up and full Christification of the church as the corporate kingdom, Body, dwelling place and bride of Christ. However, the success of their living and the condition of their lives as believers is not without consequence. Some genuine believers become stumbled and defeated in the course of their Christian life, while others overcome to mature and bear fruit (Eph. 4:13-14; John 15:5; 2 Pet. 1:18).
When the Lord Jesus returns, the believers will be raised, and He will set up His judgment seat to judge the believers concerning their life and work in this age (Rev. 22:12; Rom. 14:12; 2 Cor. 5:10). Because only some of the believers will be "ripe" at the time of this judgment, this will result in the mature, overcoming believers being rewarded with the full enjoyment of Christ and co-reign with Him in the kingdom age of "one thousand years" (perhaps a figurative number, but referring to a distinct period or age before the final consummation nevertheless, Matt. 25:21, 23; Rev. 20:4). The defeated believers, however, will "suffer loss" by being excluded from the enjoyment of this aspect of the kingdom and disciplined by the Lord during this time for their completing and perfecting (Matt. 25:10-12, 24-30). At the end of this thousand year "Sabbath rest," all the now-fully transformed and perfected believers will enter into the eternal blessings of God in union with God as the New Jerusalem in the restored heavens and earth (Rev. 22:3-5).
I believe this is the truth revealed in Scripture.
All saved believers will inevitably end up in the New Jerusalem (the final expression of the kingdom) in full communion with God, but not all saved believers will enter into the "reward" in the millennial kingdom even though they are eternally saved.
Stated another way, a "saved" believer may be securely and eternally saved in their standing before God (saved forever from hell and condemnation), yet still not be "saved enough" in their maturity in time to be qualified to enter into the full enjoyment of the "millennial kingdom" in the coming age.
This is why some why some Scriptures indicate that "salvation" is in some regard once-and-for-all, and other Scriptures indicate that "salvation" is some regard a process, that "salvation" is in some sense eternally secure, and yet that "salvation" can in some sense be lost.
These issues have divided Christians for centuries without resolution because the Bible actually contains verses that support both conclusions: that salvation is once-and-for-all and secure; salvation is a process, and can be fallen away from.
Perhaps you are not convinced that there is anything secure or once-and-for-all about salvation. Or conversely, perhaps you are not convinced that there is anything than can be lost about salvation such that we need to progress in salvation in cooperation with God's grace. Perhaps you believe it is pious to be agnostic about your salvation, or perhaps you believe it is pious to be assured.
In response, I want to demonstrate that Scripture reveals that someone who is a believer today is eternally saved in their standing of not perishing forever in hell. Yet, that there is the real possibility, accompanied with severe consequences, that they may fall short in their progressing in salvation during this life. We need to believe both in order to not make God's written word void.
I hope the former section will cause you to love God more, and your heart to burn within you as you have an eternal standing in Him because of His marvelous works. I hope you will find the latter section as sobering and inspiring of watchfulness and diligence as I do.
Eternal Salvation Cannot Be Lost
The Scriptures repeatedly testify that we are "saved" with assurance and security, not with uncertainty or ambiguity, and that we will not perish once we are saved. The Scriptures testify of this in at least the following thirteen ways, by revealing that our salvation in the Triune God is:
1. According to God's Unchangeable Will
We have been made children of God and have received sonship not according to our condition but according to the predetermined will and good pleasure of God (Eph. 1:5). God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own will and purpose (2 Tim. 1:9). John 6:39 reads, "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up in the last day." The will of God the Father concerning our salvation is that none of those who have been given to the Son should be lost, and God's will never changes (Heb. 6:17).
2. According to God's Love
We are saved not because we loved God but because He loved us (1 John 4:10). Our love may easily change, but God's love is deeper than the love of a mother (Isa. 49:15); it is eternal (Jer. 31:3), to the uttermost (John 13:1), and unchanging. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Further, this love is not just a matter of God loving everyone whether they go to heaven or hell, for this love is "in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:25-20): the love with which He loves us is based upon the righteous ground of Christ's redemption, giving us the forensic, judicial assurance that nothing can separate the elect from Him.
3. According to God's Election
God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), and it was not we who selected Him but He who selected us (John 15:14). God chose us according to His purpose and grace, not according to our works (Rom. 9:11; 2 Tim. 1:9). Moreover, God's gifts and calling are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). And those whom the Father has predestined are, from an eternal perspective, as good as conformed unto the image of His Son and glorified:
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;
And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.
-Rom. 8:29-30
4. According to God's Grace
Eph. 2:4-9 reveals that we are not saved by ourselves nor by our works but by the grace of God as a free gift (Eph. 2:4-9). In this passage, Paul speaks of our being "saved" and our being "raise up together with Him and seated together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus" in the past tense, because in eternity it is as good as accomplished in anyone who has received the free gift of grace. Our self and works may change, but the grace of God is constant and unchanging, given to us in Christ Jesus before the times of the ages (2 Tim. 1:9).
5. According to God's Righteousness
Romans 3:26 says, "With a view to the demonstrating of His righteousness in the present time, so that He might be righteous and the One who justifies him who is of the faith of Jesus." God demonstrates His righteousness through the Lord Jesus paying our debt of sin on the cross for us, thereby satisfying the requirement of God's righteousness and making our sins as white as snow (Isa. 1:18). Consequently, God must save us if we are in Christ. If God were to let His chosen people fall into hell, condemnation and eternal perdition as the penalty for sins already paid for on the cross, He would fall into unrighteousness. However, this will never happen, because righteousness is the foundation of God's throne (Psa. 89:14) and is solid and unmovable. The righteousness of God is revealed in His saving us (Rom. 1:16-17). We are justified by God, and God must save us because who can bring a charge against God's chosen ones? (Rom. 8:33).
6. According to God's Almighty Hand
In John 10:29, the Lord Jesus said the following concerning His sheep: "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand" (John 10:29). 1 Pet. 1:5 says we "are being guarded by the power of God through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time."
7. According to God's Eternal Life
The Lord Jesus said, "I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever" (John 10:28). The divine life we have received by being born of God by believing into and receiving the Lord Jesus (John 1:12-13) is eternal in quality, extent and time, giving us an eternal relationship the Father (John 3:16; 1 John 3:1). For us to perish forever means that the eternal life in us would have to die out, but something that is eternal cannot change.
8. According to God's Unbreakable Covenant
God has made a covenant to save us (Matt. 26:28) and has written the law of life within us that He will "never remember our sins" (Heb. 8:8-13). God will be faithful to this promise, for His covenant cannot be altered (Psa. 89:34).
9. According to Christ's Redemption
Hebrews 5:9 declares that the Lord has become the source of eternal salvation unto us, and Hebrews 10:14: "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." That by one offering He has perfected us forever is an accomplished fact, enabling Him to "save us forever" (Heb. 7:25). Therefore: "Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died and, rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us" (Rom. 8:34). For us to perish forever means that Christ has stopped His interceding for us. No one can negate the Lord's redemption which He eternally accomplished for us by His death and resurrection, and no one can condemn us. Therefore, our salvation is eternally secure.
10. According to Christ's Power
"And I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28). The Lord and God are one. He is equal with God. Hence, His hand is as powerful as God's hand, therefore we shall perish forever by no means. Further, if we are His, we are not only in His hands outwardly, but He is in us (2 Cor. 13:5; Rom. 8:10; Col. 1:27; Gal. 4:19) and we have been organically joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). For us to fall into eternal perdition beyond hope would mean that God could will that this bond could be broken forever, such that we could be divested of the indwelling Christ we once received never to receive Him again.
11. According to the Spirit
The Lord Jesus said, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever." The Spirit is also God, and once He has been given to us He will be with us forever. This Holy Spirit not only indwells us, but we have been "sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise" as a pledge of our inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). As long as the Spirit is in us, we have the hope of the promise. For us to perish forever would mean that the Spirit's indwelling could be retracted, and His seal revoked. The Scriptures speak of no such thing.
12. According to Christ's Unfailing Promise
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and him who comes to Me I shall by no means cast out" (John 6:37).
13. According to God Himself
In God there is no shadow cast by turning (James 1:17) and He is the unchangeable One (Mal. 3:6). Our condition and situation cannot affect His nature or what He has done for us. Once you are born of God, not even an act of will can cause you to be un-born. Once God regenerates you through "the incorruptible seed, the living and abiding word of God," (1 Pet. 1:23) you can do nothing to cause that seed to become extinguished.
Let me state unequivocally that I believe our eternal salvation is secure.
Yet Salvation Can Be Missed
Nevertheless, many other verses indicate that "salvation" is also a process not written in stone.
When read, many of the following passages traditionally have cast doubt upon the security of salvation.
As many Arminianists have pointed out, persons who presumably once had faith can:
-become unable to renew themselves unto repentance, put the Lord to open shame, and be burned (Heb. 6:4-8)
-become high-minded concerning their salvation and thus "cut off" (Rom. 11:17-22)
-become "shipwrecked concerning the faith" (1 Tim. 1:19-20)
-"depart from the faith" (1 Tim. 4:1)
-"turn aside from the faith after Satan" (1 Tim. 5:15)
-"be led away from the faith" (1 Tim. 6:10)
-"misaim regarding the faith (1 Tim. 6: 21)
-"overthrow the faith of others" (2 Tim. 2:18)
Additionally:-"if we deny Him, He will deny us" (2 Tim. 2:12)
-those who receive grace of God may do so in vain (2 Cor. 6:1)
-we may "fall away from grace" and be "severed from Christ" (Gal. 5:4)
-we may "come short of grace" (Heb. 12:15)
-those who fall away are those who last only for a time, drawing back in the time of trial (Matt. 13:20-21; Luke 8:13)
-it seems the believer is enjoined to suffer a lifelong struggle, for only he who "endures to the end shall be saved," and many who seek to enter through the narrow door "will not be strong enough" (Matt. 10:22; Luke 13:24)
-it seems our "hope" is conditional because "narrow is the gate and constricted is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it" (Matt. 7:14)
-it seems predestination is of no assurance, because we must be diligent to make our calling and selection firm, or otherwise stumble (2 Pet. 1:10)
Furthermore, the Scriptures strongly suggest that our "salvation" will be determined by living and conduct:-In the Lord's ministry, the Lord compared His disciples (His elect) to salt that can become tasteless and be "cast out" (Matt. 5:13; Luke 14:33-35).
-Although they were freed from the ritual and ineffectiveness of the Mosaic law, the disciples were nevertheless charged to live according to an even higher righteousness, the perfect righteousness of the Father (Matt. 5:48)
-In consequence, the Lord warned that those who did not live by the Father's nature in Christ's resurrection would be subject to a chastening likened to fire (v. 22), imprisonment (v. 25) and the destruction of their house (7:27), and would be excluded from the kingdom and denounced as workers of lawlessness, for not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter into the kingdom the heavens, but he who does the will of the Father in heaven" (v.21-23)
-Unless our righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20)
-If we do not forgive our brothers from our heart, neither will the Father forgive us (Matt. 6:14-15; Mark 11:25-26)--in fact, he will even deliver us to the torturers until we repay all that is owed (Matt. 18:34-35).
-The Lord warned the apostles who were sent to preach the gospel of the kingdom that they might fail under persecution, and if any were to deny Him before men, He would deny them before the Father (Matt. 10:33)
-Even apostle Paul feared that he might be disapproved, rejected and found unworthy of the prize in his commission for the gospel (1 Cor. 9:27)
-The Lord said that disciples may be excluded from the kingdom for offenses and causes of stumbling with "your brother" and "the church" (Matt. 18:6; 15-17; 32-35)
-The disciples are likened to householders who need to be on alert, for their house may be broken into by the thief because they do not know on what day their Lord comes (Matt. 24:43-44)
-The disciples are likened to slaves in the Lord's household, who may behave evilly and be cut asunder at the return of their Master (Matt. 24:45-51)
-The disciples are likened to ten virgins, of whom five were foolish and had insufficient oil, and thus were excluded from the marriage feast, to whom the Lord will say, "I do not know you" (Matt. 25:1-13)
-The disciples are likened to slaves who may be evil and slothful in handling the Lord's possessions, and consequently denied co-ruling with him in the coming kingdom and even thrown into "outer darkness" (Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 12:42-48).
-The disciples are likened to branches on the vine who may not bear fruit and thus cut off from participation in riches of the life of the vine, and even subject to chastening (burning) (John 15:6).
-The believers must walk according to the spirit, and by the Spirit put to the death the practices of the body lest they suffer spiritual death (Rom. 8:4, 13)
-They must struggle to enter in through the narrow door, for many will not be able (Luke 13:24)
-They must "be the more diligent" to make their calling and selection firm, knowing the possibility of stumbling (2 Pet. 1:10)
-The believers must "work out their own salvation in fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12)
-Regenerated but immature and unstable believers must "be diligent" to enter into the Sabbath rest, for many fall into disobedience (Heb. 4:11)
-"Partakers of Christ" and "partakers of the Holy Spirit" may become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and fall away from the living God," resulting in the burning of their thorns and thistles (Heb. 3:12-19; 6:4-8)
-The burning of these thorns and thistles are comparable to the "wood, grass and stubble," the worthless materials that some believers use to build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, that will be tested by fire at the Lord's coming when He judges all the believers, some of whom will "suffer loss" but still be saved, "yet so as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:11-15)
-As little children, we need to abide in Him or else we may be put to shame from Him at His coming (1 John 2:28)
-In Revelation 2-3, the Lord exhorts the seven churches to overcome that they may receive reward (Rev. 2:7, 10, 17, 26-28: 3:5, 12, 21), implying that those who do not overcome would be subject in some sense to the "second death" (2:11), being caught unaware by the Lord coming as a thief in the night (3:3), having their name erased from the book of life (3:5) and being spewed out of the Lord's mouth (3:16)
-Whoever wants to follow the Lord must deny himself, deny his soul-life, take up His cross daily and follow Him, for He who does not take up his cross and follow Him is not worthy of Him and cannot be His disciple, for he wishes to save his life will lose it and he who loses his life for His sake will find it (Matt. 10:38; 16:24-27; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 9:23, 14:27; 17:33)
-Judgment begins the household of God (1 Pet. 4:17) which is the church (1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 3:6, 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:19)
Many of these warnings sound very severe and decisive in their verdict, and many of them sound like they are directed to believers. Thus, the majority of these verses have been conventionally interpreted as referring to the dangers of perishing forever in hell if we are not faithful to perform. They are then often utilized to explain away the verses that indicate the security of our salvation.
The Difference Between Eternal Salvation and Reward
However, I believe most of these verses are not dealing with being "saved in the end" versus condemned to eternal perdition in hell (the penalty of sin). Rather, they are dealing with discipline/loss of reward after the Lord's coming but before all the believers enter into full communion with God during the "thousand year" millennial kingdom on earth.
The New Testament clearly reveals that all believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ to be recompensed for their living and work (Rom. 14:10-12, 2 Cor. 5:10, Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12).
And 1 Cor. 3:8, 13-15 is just one passage that clearly reveals that there is a category of believer who will receive a "reward" on top of their salvation, and another category of believer that will "suffer loss" and yet still be saved, "yet so as through fire."
If we rightly divide the matter of eternal salvation and reward in the coming kingdom, as well as distinguish eternal perdition and temporary chastisement in the coming kingdom, we will see that the many passages that speak of our not entering the "kingdom of heavens" due to our lack of works are not speaking of our perishing forever in hell but of our being temporarily excluded from the enjoyment of the bright glory of the kingdom in the coming age.
Consequences: Extreme Liturgical Doubt; Imparted vs. Infused Righteousness; Calvinism vs. Arminianism; Extreme Evangelical Assurance; Purgatory
Rejecting the millennium kingdom and the clear understanding of reward and chastening linked to it has produced many shortsighted contentions about salvation as the various traditions of Christianity have become set in their ways.
Some of the consequences include:
-Both the eastern Orthodox and western Catholic churches, seeing salvation only as process toward the highest goal, have difficulty seeing and emphasizing any definitive, conclusive and secure aspects of the believer's eternal salvation. This issues in doubt, agnosticism, fogginess and confusion about our eternal standing before God in Christ, and assurance of salvation is readily marked out as the mortal sin of presumption, despite the fact that the apostle Paul, shortly before he was martyred, said that he knew not only that he would be saved but that he would receive a reward (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
-Catholic and Reformed believers have difficulty seeing eye to eye on the matter of justification. They don't reckon that forensic, imputed righteousness is for eternal salvation while subjective, infused righteousness is for reward in the coming age.
-Calvinists and Arminianists argue over doctrine while looking through a glass darkly.
When faced with the fact that many professing Christians fall into unbelief, carnality, unrepentant sin, or doctrinal error, many Arminianists conclude that our salvation vacillates with our will and condition, and thus we must engage in a lifelong struggle of the will to overcome sin and stay in the faith.
But many Reformed theologians and other once-saved-always-saved proponents simply conclude that all of those professing Christians who end up defeated were never genuine believers among the elect in the first place, but rather the tares (false believers) sown by the enemy in with the wheat (true believers) until the harvest (Matt. 13:25-30), and the "ones who went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out that they might be manifested that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:17).
This, of course, makes it rather troublesome to tell whether you or anyone else is among the elect who will persevere. As many of us have the concept that a person who has genuine, saving faith will inevitably bear fruit ("faith without works is dead"), one can only discern who is among the elect by continually looking for visible evidences of salvation in their work and living, which easily leads to doubt in many believers' experience. In practice, a person who believes in theory that the elect will persevere unto salvation gains no more assurance than someone who believes salvation requires a process of perseverance. This daily struggle to measure up through our obedience for signs of perseverance ("when will I know that I am a real Christian?")ends up as Arminianism cloaked as Calvinism, and can be deeply damaging to the inner lives of the believers.
-The matter of reward also exposes the shortcomings of bumper-sticker Christianity and the leaven of Left-behind theology in much of evangelical Christianity. Many evangelical Christians are being taught that the entirety of the gospel is "believe, receive 1 get-out-of-hell-free card," and that immediately after their death or the Lord's return they will be resurrected or raptured and will enter directly into "heaven" for eternity, regardless of how carnal, worldly, rebellious, unrepentant, immature or self-interested they still are. This sets up dear believers for fruitless living based on flawed expectations, as well as for a rude awakening at the judgment seat of Christ. Because the presumption is that believers all "go to heaven" (as if that were the point of salvation) regardless of the quality of their fruits, the believers are not held accountable for their lives in any compelling way. The lack of realization that God will judge His people (Heb. 10:30-31) and burn their worthless works with holy fire (1 Cor. 3:13-15; Heb. 6:4-8) has issued in widespread susceptibility to false self-help and prosperity gospels, the attitude that "good intentions" but not holiness is all that counts in our gospel preaching methods and church practices, and entertainment industry mixed with Christian religion masquerading as true worship within much of evangelical Christianity.
-This matter also casts light on the development of the doctrine of purgatory.
In both the east and west, it was very common for early Christian teachers to opine that believers who die in an impure, unsanctified, unfit, unfaithful--or just insufficiently matured and transformed--condition would enter into full communion with God only after undergoing a further process of discipline and transformation after death.
The millennial kingdom, as a definite future age following the Lord's coming, was conceived of by some prominent writers in the early church as the period of time in which the perfection and completion of the believers and the renewal of the earth could take place, and various writers offered diverse opinions on the specifics. Irenaeus, relying heavily on Scripture to support his views, wrote that the righteous who are raised bodily in "the resurrection of the just" would inherit a visible kingdom on earth. During this period, "those who are worthy are accustomed gradually to partake of the divine nature," the individual saints would be disciplined before flourishing in this kingdom and would have different ranks, and the creation would be gradually restored, until the the time of the general resurrection and the final making of all things new that man may then "truly dwell in the city of God." (link). Tertullian, an enthusiastic millenarian, speculated that the matured believers would rise bodily immediately at the Lord's coming, and then that during the span of the thousand-year kingdom there would be completed the resurrection of rest of the saints, who would “rise sooner or later according to their deserts”(Against Marcion, Book 3, chapter 25).
Augustine was also of the opinion that the believers needed to be perfected after death, but by the time he began developing his thoughts about the topic he had already rejected this Raison d'être of the future millennial age.
Lacking a ready vehicle for the future discipline and completion of the unfit believers, yet being a systematic thinker compelled to find one, he proposed an extra-scriptural eschatology in which the believers would be disciplined--not in a future age but in another "world" that they would enter into immediately after death in which they would experience "purgatorial" punishments, torments and fire.
This became one of the foundations for the development of the teaching of purgatory, often conceived as a sin-purging diffusion gradient in an alternate realm outside time and space through which prayers push deceased repentants forth.
These are D. M. Panton's (very Protestant, but very thought-provoking) words on how the prospect of the millennial kingdom reward is not only relevant to our Christian life, but also explains the development of the teaching of purgatory, as given in his book The Judgment Seat of Christ:
It is obvious that the truth of a believer’s judgment, so abundantly stated in the Scriptures, is of vast practical moment, and, once it lays its grip upon a soul, simply incalculable in its motive power. For, contrary to what is sometimes supposed, it greatly reinforces our assurance of eternal life; because, by disentangling countless conditioned promises of reward from the simple assurance of eternal life granted on bare faith, it isolates the unconditioned gift into a radiant light, while withdrawing into the sphere of reward numerous menacing passages, expressive of extreme difficulty and doubt, which have ever been the strongholds of Rome. By reassuring of eternal safety, while yet warning of Millennial peril, it frees the soul for an arrow-flight straight to God’s highest and best. Moreover, of all Scripture truths none is more needed by the Church of Christ. Augustine, as remarkable a servant as God ever had, says that no more constant or powerful motive actuated his discipleship than the knowledge that he must give account; and no Christian would dare plunge into the worldliness and sin now rampant amongst multitudes of true believers had the truth our Lord expresses to Thyatira been once burnt home to the soul ;-" All the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I wilt give unto each one of you according to your works" (Rev. 2:23). And finally, it brings to bear upon the redeemed heart, with thrilling power, the full impact of facts. If a literal bodily removal from coming horrors, if literal bursting from the tombs with the throbbings of immortal life, if literal thrones, and a literal authority over the nations, walking with Christ in white -if all these are contingent on holiness and suffering, all other ambitions become as dust, and martyrdom itself no excessive price. But not the least of its advantages is the light it casts on Roman error, and how that error arose; and, above all, on the Roman doctrine of purgatory. For (we first observe) it is a supreme peculiarity of our Lord’s love to His own that it can never stop short of the perfection of the person loved. "As many as I love, I reprove and chasten" (Rev. 3:19) : "He chastens us for our profit, that we may become partakers of His holiness" (Heb. 12:10). His holiness is perfection; so that our discipline, however drastic or prolonged, is never a proof of His enmity, but of His love; and is never a sign-either now, or at the Judgment Seat-of a disciple’s ultimate destruction, but of his ultimate perfection. Where others show their love by indulgence, Christ shows His by chastisement. "Every branch in Me that beareth fruit, He PURGETH it" (John 15:2). Thus if the judgment of believers, and the Scripture so calls it (I Cor. 11:32), is in full operation (as all admit) in the day of grace itself, it is obvious that such judgment, even to the infliction of death here (1 Cor. 11:30) or hereafter (Luke 12:46), can be no contravention of the principles of grace: our chastisement is our highway to perfection.
Please post with any questions.
I usually enjoy writing more devotional things, but I've been burdened with this matter for awhile and had to get it off my chest. :)