1 Corinthians 3:13-15 says,
"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day 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." Traditionally this has been viewed as saying that if a Christian’s works, which are built upon the Foundation which is Christ, survive the fire of testing he, receives a reward. Those good works would be described as gold, silver and precious stones. But if a Christian’s works are burned up, he would suffer loss. Those bad works are described as wood, hay and stubble or chaff, which burn quite readily in a fire. If, however, you point to this verse as biblical support of everyone being saved (eventually), the most common response is "But this is only talking about Christians with the Foundation of Christ" So what they’re saying is that a Christian could receive the Foundation of Christ, build wood, hay and stubble on it, have it all burnt up, yet still hold on to his salvation. Well, Paul goes on to say that you are the temple of God. By building with wood, hay and stubble, you are corrupting that temple. Wood, hay and stubble are symbolic of false doctrines, lies, and all falsehood. Of the person that builds the temple with these Paul says,
"If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are."(1 Corinthians 3:17) Now my point is that the person Paul is talking about in the 17th verse is exactly the same person he is talking about in the 15th verse. One says he shall suffer loss, another says God will destroy him. Think about it, he is warning you not to build the temple with wood, hay and stubble. That would defile the temple. In other words, what Paul means by being destroyed is suffering loss, but the end of that man is still to be saved, yet as through fire. "Yes, but it is still only talking about Christians" you say? So God Almighty is going to be more lenient on Christians than on the other people in the world? Well, traditionally we have been taught that, but let me show you something Jesus said.
Jesus told a parable about servants of a household, the servants being symbolic of Christians. It reads,
"But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for [him], and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not [himself], neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many [stripes]. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few [stripes]. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."( Luke 12:45-48) Now the person that "knew not" is a person in the world, who doesn’t know the will of God (1 Thess 4:5), the unbelievers who do not inherit the kingdom of God. He couldn’t be a servant, for what servant is not instructed in what he should be doing by his Lord? So the unbelievers who do those things worthy of a beating, will receive less punishment than those who the Lord instructed. We Christians are the ones who have received "much", compared to those not chosen, who have received "little". More will be required of us than of the people in the world and we will be held to a higher standard than those not instructed in the ways of God. More proof of this is in James 3:1, which reads, "Not many [of you] should become teachers (self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation]"(Amplified Bible). Now lets go back to what Paul talked about in 1 Cor 3. Yes, this is ta lking about Christians who, like the teachers who will be judged by a higher standard than other Christians, will be judged by a higher standard than the rest of humanity. Now if that Christian, who defiled the temple of God, building with wood, hay and stubble, lies, false doctrines and everything false, still gets saved as through fire, to what standard is God going to hold the rest of humanity to? A more harsh one? You see the hypocrisy the world sees in us? We were told to go tell the world the Good News, and instead we have been trying to frighten them into church by holding the specter of hell over their heads. Hell is what they are in right now, separated from the love of God, with no hope or knowledge of peace, living under bondage to the fear of death all their lives (Heb 2:15). When are we going to wake up and get it right, that
"...we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe."(1 Tim 4:10) Not ONLY those that believe, but especially those that believe.
We Christians are heavens government, they are the ones we will be governing. They are our inheritance, not the devils! The devil has them right now, and we are supposed to be trying to get them free. We Christians have just read right over what Paul wrote about being saved by fire, not realizing that that is the way God plans on saving all of us. Every man’s works will be revealed by fire of that Day, but if we build out of gold we can be right in the middle of that fire without being touched. As it is written,
"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death."(Revelation 2:11) and we know that the second death is that fire, for the bible declares,
"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."(Revelation 20:14) We are the ones who will be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they stood in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. They weren’t touched by the fire. It didn't hurt them! Isaiah talks about it when he says,
"...Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly..."(Isaiah 33:14-15) The Christian who has his works burnt up and suffers loss is no better off than someone that had never even heard of the Gospel, if fact he is worse off. He loses his soul, because that is what we are building on our Foundation, and Peter says,
"For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known [it], to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them."(2 Pet 2:20-21) He says it would have been better if that man had never know about Christ.
You see, what we hear Paul talking about in 1 Corinthians 3 is a worse judgment than those in the world receive, not a more lenient one. I know I am going against what has been established church tradition for centuries, but the bible is the bible, and in these last days we had better start getting it right. We are the ones who are to go out and get the world to come to God, and if people are lost it will be our fault, not Gods.
We were commissioned to go out and preach the Good News to every creature, yet we let traditions and doctrines taught by men usurp the Written Word of God and pervert our message into one of fear and guilt. If what I am teaching is not true, then every Christian is a liar when they tell an unsaved person that Jesus died for their sins. If He died for their sins and took the penalty for them, then why do we tell them God is going to put that right back on them. It is time for us to start preaching what the bible says, and throw out all our traditional understandings that don’t line up with the word of God.
I have just proven to you that Christians will be judged by a HIGHER STANDARD than the world, not a lesser one, like we have traditionally been led to believe. Take that and start looking at the scriptures again, pray that God open your eyes to ALL His truth. There is a move of God coming on the earth soon, like no other that the world has ever seen. I even saw a book in a Christian bookstore lately called "What Ever Happened To Hell?" showing that Christians are already starting to realize that this doctrine is contradicted by the Word. God is already opening the understanding of Christians all over the world to this. If the rest of the church doesn’t start preaching the full Word of God, and keeps holding onto it’s traditions against biblical principals like healing, prosperity, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the like, it will find itself in the un-enviable position of fighting against God. I am sorry if I am sounding harsh, but we are running right up to the end of this age, and those that are sick have to take their medicine.
It is all these traditions and doctrines of men that has made us the laughing stock of the world for the last 1700 years or so, when that great falling away that Paul prophesied about started. It is time to get back to basics and act like what we are, the Church of Jesus Christ, the most powerful force this world has ever know. Let’s look at a little more proof.
Paul symbolized the false doctrines built on a Christians Foundation as wood, hay and stubble, right? Well, lets take a look at what John the Baptist said Jesus would do to that stubble. The stubble of hay is the chaff and little broken pieces of the stock. It is useless. John the Baptist said,
"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and [with] fire: Whose fan [is] in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."(Matthew 3:11) A parable Jesus told shows the same thing. Matthew 13:24-30 declares,
" Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." In this parable Jesus explains,
"He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked [one]; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels (messengers). As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels (messengers), and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."(Matthew 13:37-43) Now, would you say that a Christian, who builds with false doctrines on the Foundation of Christ, with wood, hay and stubble would be offensive to God? Of course. That wicked servant will have his portion with the unbelievers, and he will be wailing and gnashing his teeth more than the rest. The unbelievers do not share in the inheritance, and neither will the wicked servants. That is suffering loss, but we know that his end is still to be saved. That word "loss" is best translated "forfeit" and is also used in this passage,
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose (forfeit) his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"(Mark 8:36) Their end is to be saved but they loose their souls. What is you soul? It is your mind, will and emotions. It is YOU, what you are, the psyche of a person. It is what you believe and what you think. If you believe and think wrongly, you will loose that. How? By having it burned up in fire that is unquenchable and everlasting, for it is written,
"...our God [is] a consuming fire."(Hebrews 12:29). If a Christian, who will be judged by a higher standard than unbelievers, still gets to be saved after loosing his soul, how much more those in the world that Jesus died to save?
We Christians have had a double standard for a long time concerning those in the world. There is a double standard, but it is exactly the opposite that we have been taught. It is our souls at stake, not our spirits. Our spirits are eternal, but we strive to preserve our souls (Psa 86:2, 97:10, 121:7, Prov 16:17). If your soul, what you believe and think, is false, it will be destroyed in that fire. It is compared to a piece of ore. The garbage in it, the dross, will be destroyed in the furnace but the silver and gold, that which is truth, will be saved. When the bible talks about the wicked being destroyed and losing their souls, it is not talking about a place of everlasting torment. Yes, the rich man was in torment, and will be until that Day when he looses his old unregenerate soul in the fire, and is saved. But he is not an inheritor of the Kingdom of God, he is a subject of it. He is not a ruler, but ruled over. You can lose your soul, but still be saved. In fact, most of humanity will die in their sins and lose their souls. That is why we are trying to preach to them the Good News and get some truth into them and preserve their souls. Before Jesus came, Man was separated from God. Jesus has reconciled Man back to God (past tense), but you need a new soul. Your mind, will and emotions have to be renewed. Once I was lost, but God judged that person, poured out Himself on him and destroyed that old person. Now I have a brand new soul, as it is written,
"Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."(2 Corinthians 5:17) God, who is a consuming fire, burned up the garbage and purified me like gold in a furnace. Saul of Tarsus got Baptized with Fire on the road to Damascus. It destroyed the old Saul and produced the man who wrote 2/3rds of the New Testament.
We Christians are blessed in the fact that that happens to us here, while we are still in our mortal bodies. Most people don’t have that happen until their mortal bodies have died. They die in their sins and stand before God on judgment day still having to go through that fire. God doesn’t treat some people differently than He treats others. The wages of sin is death. Before you know God, you are dead. How do you destroy darkness? You turn on a light. How do you destroy hate and lies except by love and truth. How do you destroy something that is dead except by giving it life. Go back and read all the places in your bible that you have been taught is talking about sinners going to hell for eternity, and read them in the light of this revelation of the love of God, and I believe you will see what I am talking about. God Bless.
MF