The teaching that Christians are not to suffer comes from the heart and mouth of Antichrist. Satan knows it is only through suffering that Christ can be formed in us. Satan prefers we Christians save our life—even our life of religious activities. The one thing Satan fears is that we Christians will die to our own life and Christ will come forth in us and destroy Satan's kingdom in the earth (Mark 8:31-33).

Let us examine the purpose for our fiery trials.

Every human being is born guilty of sin. We are born dead. We bear the guilt of Adam's sin. In addition we possess a human nature that is rebellious against its Creator. The human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

Every human being at some point in his existence must stand before the Judgment Seat (beema) of Christ.

The term beema is employed twelve times in the New Testament. A beema, according to New Testament usage, is an elevated throne where people accused of crimes are brought for judgment. Pilate judged Christ at a beema. Paul stood before the beema of Festus and requested that he be brought before the beema of Caesar.

No individual is brought before a beema unless he is accused of a crime.

Every human being will be made manifest at the beema of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ was brought before the beema of Pilate; but one day Pilate will be revealed before the beema of Christ. How will Pilate feel when he stands before Jesus? What will he say? What will the judges of this world say when they stand before the saints whom they found guilty of the crime of being a Christian and then assigned to imprisonment, torture, and death?

Where does the atonement made by Christ fit into this picture? If Christ made an atonement, a reconciliation for us, why is it necessary for us to be saved by fiery judgment?

If any human being will choose to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, the Lord will extend to him forgiveness—forgiveness made possible by the sacrificial death of Jesus. The full penalty for sin fell on Jesus, the Lamb of God. Jesus had not sinned. Therefore, according to God's righteousness, Jesus can declare to be guiltless whomever He will.

If a person will repent of his sin, place his faith and hope in Christ, and be baptized in water as Christ has commanded, Christ will declare him to be righteous in God's sight.

The substitutionary death of Christ has made us acceptable to God. We must confess with our mouth that Jesus is the Lord, the chosen One of God. We must believe in our heart that Jesus has been raised and is alive eternally—positive proof that whoever believes in Him is righteous in the sight of God.

After having received Christ as our Lord and Savior, our personality is divided into two parts. Our old personality, our original soulish nature and physical body, remains on the earth. Our new born-again spiritual nature is raised in the Spirit and is hidden with Christ in God.

We by faith, in obedience to the written Word of God, are to assign our entire first personality (the good and the bad of it—all that was born of our human parents) to the cross of Christ. Our new life in Christ has been raised with Christ to the right hand of God.

To be continued.