If today's careless "saints" understood thoroughly that when Jesus comes He will not say to the lukewarm believer, well done, good and faithful servant, they would repent of their coldness and begin to seek the Lord. Our common sense tells us this is so.

But we are being taught, in many instances that we can hide our abominable behavior behind a covering of grace. Those who teach this will be cast out of the Kingdom when Christ returns.

Our conscience and our common sense warn us that the day of reckoning is coming. Religious teachings have a way of destroying conscience and common sense, and so we are warning the Christian people that they indeed will be rewarded or punished according to their works when Jesus appears.

Those who are removing from the churches the normal fear of the Day of Judgment by teaching that a profession of belief in Jesus will shield the individual from reaping what he is sowing, shall suffer punishment at the hands of Jesus. They are false prophets. They are destroying the Lord's inheritance.

The Book of Hebrews is a warning to believers in Christ that they will not escape God's anger if they neglect their salvation and turn back into the ways of sin.

The Book of Hebrews does not emphasize an individual's going to Heaven or Hell when he dies. Rather, the writer of Hebrews speaks of the danger of dying in the wilderness, that is, of losing our joyous confidence and zeal in the middle of our pilgrimage; of not living in the Spirit and pressing forward to the rest of God. The "rest" of God is not Heaven. The rest of God is the state of abiding in victory in Christ in God and all else that goes along with victory.

Of one fact we are certain: the careless Christian is facing a terrifying experience when the Lord returns. To have the door of the Kingdom of God shut in one's face, to be cast into outer darkness, to be tormented to the point of weeping and gnashing one's teeth, are stern consequences indeed.

The written Word of God warns the negligent Christian that he will face an angry Christ in the Day of the Lord. He can expect to experience fiery torments, unbearable remorse, spiritual suffering, for an unknown period of time.

Perhaps he will be saved by this fire. Or, he may receive the maximum sentence—that of being separated from His Creator forever while in confinement in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. His may be the blackness of darkness forever, being alone!—without God!—without hope!

We are not speaking of the people of the world. We are referring to Christians who have neglected Christ. They will receive numerous lashes. The current belief that punishment can be avoided by a profession of doctrine is producing moral chaos in the churches of Christ.

When discussing His actions on returning to the earth, Christ never raised the issue of a person's doctrine. He spoke of how He will punish the wicked and reward the righteous.

May the Lord Jesus Christ help us repent before our generation of Christians is lost to the eternal purpose of God in Christ, before numerous believers enter death unprepared for the realities of the spirit realm.

To be continued.