Quote:
Originally Posted by bearbear
Hi Sunshine thanks for sharing. I'm open to the idea that the millennial reign will be given as a reward selectively to some saints and not others. Though I vehemently disagree that the other saints will suffer in an outer darkness type purgatory (which is really from a works based salvation view), rather perhaps they will be assigned other tasks to carry out in heaven. Yet if the reward was limited to 1000 years, wouldn't it be finite and perishing? If the reward is truly valuable and something to seek after it must also have an element of carrying over into eternity.
1 Cor 9:25
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
I disagree about Philippians 2:12 referring to only rewards, it is clearly about salvation based on the wording. As you implied, we don't work for our salvation but we work "out" what God put in us through the Holy Spirit. So works is just evidence that we are truly saved. If it was only about rewards, Paul would have used the word "rewards". There isn't a hidden meaning behind Paul's letters unless otherwise indicated. Read a few verses after and we see Paul worrying about "laboring in vain"
Phil 2:16
holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
If the souls that Paul were laboring after were already saved and his ministry to them thereafter only meant the difference between the loss of rewards why would he express such a fear? And if Phil 2:12 was only about rewards, why did Paul add the words "fear and trembling"?
Jesus told us to make disciples because disciples follow Jesus and Jesus said he gives his sheep who follow him eternal life (John 10:27-28). If praying the sinner's prayer once and proceeding to live selfishly in sin for the remainder of one's life was enough for salvation then Jesus should have instructed his followers to go on world tours to get everyone to say the sinner's prayer. Instead, Paul modeled after Jesus' instructions in the great commission to make disciples by visiting churches repeatedly and worrying about the progress of the faith of the saints.
Galatians 4:19
my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!
But what I'm advocating for isn't works salvation -- instead it's "born again" salvation. Being born again requires making room for the free gift of salvation through circumcision of the heart (Rom 2:28-29). The thief on the cross did not say the sinner's prayer but Jesus said he was saved because he circumcised his heart at the last hour. The Pharisees tried all their life to serve God but it was in vain because they did not circumcise their hearts and neither did the false disciples in Matt 7:21-23 who performed mighty miracles but of whom Jesus said "I never knew you, depart from me you workers of lawlessness".
Psalms 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
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Hello bearbear,
I do agree with you that in Phil 2, Paul does not mention reward. What I was trying to say, is that working out our salvation will lead to reward if we grow unto maturity. There are a quite a few bible verses to support that but I don't quite have them structured on hand yet. Its something I will be putting together progressively as I revisit them.
The 1000 year kingdom, know as the millennial kingdom refers to the kingdom age, the age that to come after the age of grace (we are currently in the age of grace). The 1000 year kingdom age as I understand it, is the same duration as the wedding feast.
The kingdom of God is eternal, but its manifestation is progressive until fullness and to eternity. The time after the 1000 year kingdom age will be the New Jerusalem in the New heaven and new earth. Believers that did not qualify to enter the joy of the master (wedding feast) are still saved, they will be included in the New Heaven and New earth. These are big topics that takes years of study to map and understand. I am still in that process.
Anyway, I don't think this forum is meant for this kind of discussion.