It may be noted that Jesus, when commenting on His return, spoke often of the judgment of the behavior of His servants, never of the judgment of their doctrine. The punishment of the unfaithful servant of the Lord is outer darkness.

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:30)

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:23)

The Word of God states in many passages that there is a direct relationship between righteous behavior and eternal life.

But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (Romans 6:22)

We have overemphasized and have applied too liberally Paul's reasoning, in Romans, Chapters Three through Five, concerning the imputation (ascribing) of righteousness under the new covenant.

We believe, and rightly so, that no person can be justified by the works of the Law of Moses now that God has given His sacrifice for the sins of the world.

But to deduce from this that the Lord's people can walk with Him in unrighteousness, or that God condemns people because they never have heard of Jesus, is to make the heartless error of the Pharisee. We master the points of the "law" (the schemes we have invented for "accepting Christ") and then apply them in a manner contrary to the mind and heart of God. We strain out gnats and swallow camels. We embrace the letter and cannot find the Spirit. We never will know God because our heart is not after God's heart.

God gave the Law of Moses, and the Pharisees twisted it and misapplied it until they were able to continue in covetousness, thievery, murder, and self-seeking. God has given us grace through the Lord Jesus Christ and we are twisting it and misapplying it until we are able to continue in covetousness, thievery, murder, and self-seeking. We do always err in our heart.

Even that Christian favorite, the Judgment Seat of Christ, is a judgment of works, not of doctrinal position:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (II Corinthians 5:10)

If an individual had not become biased by being taught the Christian traditions, would he not understand the above verse to mean we will be judged according to our works?

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man [every man!] according as his work shall be. (Revelation 22:12)

. . . and I will give unto every one of you [believers] according to your works. (Revelation 2:23)

Does not the Scripture teach that every person shall be judged according to his or her works, that each shall be rewarded or punished according to his works?

The sinning Christian will receive more lashes than the sinning non-Christian because the sinning Christian has had more light entrusted to him (Luke 12:47,48).

Who [God] will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God. (Romans 2:6-11)

The Apostle Paul summed it up: all men, the heathen, the Jews, and the Christians, will enter eternal life, or into indignation and wrath, depending on what each has done in his body.

This Scripture will stand true at the Judgment Seat of Christ, including the part of the Judgment Seat that will occur at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

God will judge all persons at that time except those who had been raised in the first resurrection (Revelation 20:4-6).

All people will be judged according to the light they have been given. Those who practice good will be raised to eternal life in the new heaven and earth reign of Christ and His saints. Those whom Christ judges to be unworthy of eternal life will be cast into the Lake of Fire.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:46) (from The "White Throne" Judgment; It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking)