To continue with our traditions concerning how God will deal with our sinful nature in the ages to come:

We will continue to be pretty much as we are except that God will keep forgiving us through "grace." Of all the ideas that are being presented today, this by far is the most horrific. This would mean a change in God and how He relates to people. It would be best had we never been born if such were the case.

Life in Heaven then would be exactly as in the churches on earth. I would not care to live in such a mess, I don't know about you.

In this instance the Bride would continue to be spotted and wrinkled, a gossiping, self-centered spiritual hag. But to Christ she would be Miss Universe, pure, beautiful, a perfect helpmeet for Him.

They say love is blind but the neighbors ain't. The angels would see what a wretch the Lord had got hooked up to but He would continue in delusion.

Poor Jesus!

When we are raptured to Heaven we will pass before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Then the Lord will forgive all our sins (if we have taken the four steps of salvation) and we will not sin any longer. How this mythology got started is beyond me. There is no passage in the Bible that states the Lord is going to carry His Bride away to Heaven. We Evangelicals may emphasize our affirmation of the plenary, verbal inspiration of the authentic texts but we continue to preach doctrine not found in the holy writings.

We can take four steps or four hundred steps of salvation. But at the Judgment Seat of Christ we are going to receive that which we have practiced during our life on the earth. We are going to reap what we have sown.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (II Corinthians 5:10—NIV)

How many see in the above verse that all believers will be forgiven their sins and empowered to sin no longer? Raise your hand.

Dear Lord, are we having problems reading?

Every believer (we all) will be revealed before the Judgment Seat. There we will receive what is due us for the way we have behaved.

Do you see anything about all believers being forgiven?

Do you see anything about all believers being purified and empowered to live in victory?

Do you see any indication whatever that this judgment takes place in Heaven?

Do you see any evidence that this judgment will take place after we have been raptured from the earth?

The fourth chapter of the Book of First Peter informs us that the Judgment Seat of Christ began two thousand years ago with the house of God, the saints on earth and the saints in the spirit realm.

To be continued.