[Awoken]

Originally Posted by countmeworthy

4) Then 1 Thessalonians 4:17 speaks of the rapture of the church. Everyone who is washed and cleansed in the Blood of the Lamb is an overcomer regardless of how they lived. The Blood of Jesus is the key to entering heaven. But rewards will be distributed differently.

Does this mean that (for instance, since he is the best convenient example at this time) Ravi Zacharias never actually received the cleansing of the blood, regardless of whether he asked for it?

Hebrews 10
26 If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and raging fire that will consume all adversaries. 28 Anyone who rejected the Law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Matthew 24
48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’ 49 And he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. 51 Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The "hypocrites" in Jesus' day, as He referred to them, were the Pharisees, who did not believe in Him at all. I dunno exactly what "cutting someone to pieces and assigning them a place with hypocrites" will look like but it doesn't sound much like salvation to me.

The thief who died on the cross did indeed go to be with the Lord, but then again, he didn't have an opportunity to live out the rest of his life in obedience/faith. It was appointed to him to die on a cross next to Jesus and at that point, his choices were A) die without believing or B) die believing. One might argue that this means a person can go to heaven without actually walking out their faith, i.e., live a sinful life because they got the "Once Saved Always Saved" ticket punched and even if there is some "dispensational punishment", they'll still end up in eternity with God. I kind of doubt that. I think this picture of the thief should speak more plainly to us that he didn't receive the opportunity to live out the rest of his life in faith, ministering to others and doing the good works to which he otherwise would have been appointed, but he did the one good thing he could do at that point, which was to believe in Jesus and honor Him.

I kinda feel like for the rest of us we should not take that as a license to sin but rather a reason to be thankful that we're not dying on a cross without any opportunity to physically/practically live out our faith. We have received a greater blessing so more will be expected of us.