It is our personal opinion that there are all sorts of lashes and prisons, apart from Hell and the Lake of Fire, that await the sinning believer when he or she dies. Why shouldn't there be? Doesn't the Lord in the Gospels say that His servants who are cruel to their fellow servants will suffer? Whether such punishment takes place in the spirit realm after death or on the earth for those who are alive when the Lord returns is not important. It is inescapable that at some point all believers must be judged, and those who have not repented of their sins will be punished until they repent.

We are not implying that there cannot be for some people eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire, for such is stated in the Scriptures. We are speaking rather of the chastening of believers whom God has accepted so their spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.

The believer who has worked in the ministry will be rewarded if his efforts have been wrought in Christ. But if they are found to be dead religious works the individual will be saved with no reward, the fire having destroyed the fruit of his or her life.

There is no Scripture whatever that states or implies that physical death delivers the believer from sin. The sin residing in the flesh may or may not after death remain in the flesh (sin is not physical but spiritual). Lust, lying, murder, covetousness, may accompany the believer into the spirit realm. Assuredly sins of the will, of the personality, do not vanish with death. There is no Scripture stating sin ceases to become an issue on the basis of our physical death. We always must go by the Scripture and not by our assumptions or traditions.

Somewhere, somehow, at some point in time, the sin in every person must be dealt with.

The Scripture points toward a future salvation. We are stating that the future salvation will include the raising and glorifying of our body (if we have lived victoriously in Christ), but its first and greatest benefit will be the removing of every vestige of sin from the believers who are eagerly waiting for Him, beginning with those who are closest to the Lord.

There Are Passages of Scripture That Point Toward the Cleansing of God's People in the Last Days.

We are not without scriptural support when we claim the salvation to come in the future will include the removing of sin from God's people.

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, (Isaiah 4:4—NASB)

To be continued.