How many believers sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth? There is no second "Calvary" that will forgive their sins. "A fearful looking for of fiery judgment" is the result of such behavior. They by their actions prove themselves to be the adversaries of God, to be unworthy of the Kingdom of God.

As for being cast into the Lake of Fire to be with Satan and his angels forever, this is a fate so incomprehensibly horrible that the human mind is completely unable to fathom it.

Let us continue in the fourth chapter of First Peter.

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: (I Peter 4:12)

The passage above reminds us of the first verse of the fourth chapter, which urges us to arm ourselves with a mind to suffer. The fiery trial is Divine judgment—judgment designed to drive sin and self-will from us and make us partakers of God's holy Nature.

There were three great convocations of Israel:

Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty: (Deuteronomy 16:16)

The feast of Unleavened Bread typifies the basic salvation experience through the blood of the Lamb.

The feast of Weeks represents the Pentecostal experience in which we learn to walk in holiness and also are empowered to bear witness of the atoning death, triumphant resurrection, and soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The feast of Tabernacles is that which we are approaching now. Included in the feast of Tabernacles are the blowing of Trumpets and the solemn Day of Atonement. The ten days from Trumpets to the Day of Atonement are known as Yomim Noroim (Days of Awe); for during these ten days God judges the world, in Jewish tradition.

After Pentecost we enter a time of fiery judgment, the purpose of which is to reconcile us totally to the Lord.

It is not possible to pass directly from Pentecost to Tabernacles. We must endure the pains and prisons of the Day of Atonement. Only then is it possible for the Father and the Son to enter us fully in the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.

Since God is now ready to judge the living and the dead we assume some parts of the household of God in the spirit realm may be passing through the fiery judgments of the Lord in order that God's witnesses of every era can come to perfection together. We must keep in mind also that numerous saints of the past endured fiery trials while they yet were alive on the earth, as we can observe in the fourth chapter of First Peter, and also in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:40)

Peter goes on to say:

But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. (I Peter 4:13)

To be continued.