Bema Seat

Baptists love to talk about the “Bema Seat!” They want it. They crave it. Nay, they covet it! This relatively new term has become ubiquitous throughout modern Christian society. One might even say it has become “hip” to use the term.

However popular it may or may not be, it should warrant more scrutiny than the off-the-cuff usage it gets from those who seem always desirous of being in the avant-guard, if you will, of religious society. They seem not to realize that jumping on band-wagons has been the bane of wanna-be truth seekers since God mad man.

Scripture says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Some sins? Most sins? Most unrighteousness?

Our concept of forgiveness is warped by centuries of heresy, osmosis and lust. There are things that we want even more than forgiveness, grace and mercy. We hunger for glory, power and honor!

How many Baptist preachers preach salvation by grace through faith out of one side of their mouths while preaching rewards through works out of the other? They see no inconsistency with proclaiming that there is nothing our works can do to impress God to salvation, but, contrariwise, we can somehow impress Him with our works toward “rewards!”

Oh, yes, those glorious “rewards!” We want them so bad our teeth ache!

How many so-called Christian denominations were founded on the concept that we can someway, somehow earn rewards in Heaven from an all-righteous, Holy God? How many sell mansions of Glory at a price they allege we as feeble humans can pay? How many say, “Oh, yes, we receive salvation by grace through faith, but there are crowns awaiting those who live the righteous life that God demands.”

Little people! Small minded, arrogant, self-centered, self-righteous fools! Exactly what “rewards” do they think God will grant them for their presumed rectitude that He won’t grant to the next, not so righteous, child of God?

Just what is it that they want? Do they want shinier halos? Bigger mansions? Perhaps, an Olympic size swimming pool in the backyard of their Heavenly mansion as opposed to just a plain old regular size pool? Maybe they want an extra paving of gold on the street where they live in Glory. (Streets of gold in Heaven? I’ll save that for another time.) If they want anything or anyone but Jesus, it is no more than sinful lust?

“Oh, we’re just going to cast our crowns at the feet of Jesus.” Phooey! Yeah, they just want to make sure everyone sees they have more crowns to cast than the next saint. Sounds as if they want everyone to hear the clank of their many crowns landing next to their neighbor’s fewer crowns on the throne room floor of Heaven.

So, you go to church every Sunday. Wednesday nights too. You let nothing interfere with your daily prayer, fasting and study time. You teach Sunday School and are Chairman of the Deacons. You sit on the Trustee Board. You help out in VBS. You watch your language around sinners, ladies and children. You even share the Gospel with the unsaved on your job. You visit the widow and the fatherless. You abstain from gossip and give your tithes regularly. You even do all of this with a sincere heart out of love for your God and the lost. SO WHAT?!?

What does the Bible say about “filthy rags”? Do we really think that, whatever pathetic works we may do, compare in even the smallest, most minute, infinitesimal way to the Holiness of the Great God of the universe?

Why would we think such a thing? Simple! We would think such a thing because we proudly look at our neighbor in the pew, at work or at home, and think, “Well, I’m doing better than he is.” Don’t lie! Don’t say you’re not! Truth be known, you/we do that all too often.

If we are in actuality using any other measurement but that of our Savior, we are vain, proud and arrogant. We have no other ruler to go by. If we are not humbled by juxtaposing our filthy rags with his infinite goodness, we should never again hypocritically accuse the Pharisees of conceit.

Still, we’re like fools in a moon jumping contest. We think because maybe we jump six inches higher than our neighbor does, we are closer to jumping over the moon. (You know, like the cow in the nursery rhyme.)

Do we believe that we are closer to God’s goodness than others are? Vanity of vanities! We are frauds and deceive only ourselves.

All this is ultimately linked to our skewed ideas on what forgiveness actually is. We say God forgives us, but, on the other hand, he reminds us of our sins.

It works like this:

Say, a friend offends me in some way, but later repents, seeking my forgiveness. I grant it to him, like the good Christian that I am (ha!) and we go on with our lives like nothing had ever come between us.

Years pass and I visit my friend on his death bed. As he is about to close his eyes for the last time on this mortal coil, I remind him of the injury that he did to me so many years past. You know, the one I told him I forgave him for.

The question remains: Did I really forgive him? Easy answer. No!

Now, that sounds like a crazy story, but don’t we accuse God of doing the same thing every day? Don’t preachers, even preachers who believe in “eternal security” accuse our Heavenly Father of such vindictiveness? Don’t we say that the first thing God is going to do when we open our eyes in Glory is to throw every sin that we ever committed up in our faces? Every time we used a bad word; every time we skipped church; every time we failed to witness or study or pray. All those sins that He said He forgave us for? Well, that may be a lot of things, but that’s NOT forgiveness! (Just my opinion.)

I hear it from the pulpit on a regular basis. Yes, God forgives you of your sins, but you have to answer for your sins at the “Bema Seat” on “Judgment Day.” These so-called Baptists say, “Yes, your salvation is secure, but you still have to answer for your failings. For the times you failed to witness, to pray or fill-in-the-blank.” Yes, they would, as they have before, accuse me of misrepresenting their views, but if they mean something else, they should say something else. My guess is, and I’m really not guessing, they are saying exactly what they mean.

To what end? I believe God does everything that He does to draw His saints closer to Him and to save sinners. If he bitterly scolds me once I get to Heaven, how will that bring me closer than His presence? How will that save one sinner? For Him to do such on that glorious day would be no more than spite on His part. Excuse me, but I refuse to believe that my God is a spiteful God!

So, why preach such insanity? There are several, perhaps, many reasons, but I’ll dwell on what is likely the salient one. It’s really quite simple, though you may think my take on this…curious.

Too many preachers in our pulpits are not called by God to the ministry. Daddy used to call them, “Momma called and Daddy chosen.” They are wanna-be, often seminary trained, professional preachers who don’t have an anointing on their lives that flows to their congregations. (This curse is not restricted to educated preachers though.) They don’t know how to inspire the troops, so to speak. They haven’t a clue how to promote their Esprit de Corps. So, they try to motivate their members, who all too often are as Spiritless as they are, to work for God through fear and vain promises of vague rewards in Heaven. They think, “I’ll tell them that they’ll have to stand before the Bema Seat and answer to God for their indiscretions as a Christian and then they’ll be rewarded for the work they actually did for God.” Maybe these exact words never cross their minds, but that is the gist of their thought process. They erroneously conclude that there is no other way to motivate their congregants.

Now, you may say, “Yes, how else will we get movement from the pews into the fields?” Call me crazy! Call me obtuse. Call me what you will. I still can’t help but wonder what more of a motivating factor we need than the Love of Christ!

“Oh, I think so too,” you say. Yet, you continue to harp about the Bema Seat; warning born again, washed in the blood children of God that a day of reckoning is coming, even for them. Through it all, the very oxymoronic nature of your argument goes totally unnoticed by yourself.

Let’s hear the conclusion of the matter: You may continue to live your life in fear and lust. Fear of God’s angry finger waving in your face chastising you for the failures of your life. You may lust for the things you think you will be rewarded with in Heaven because of your self-perceived exemplary life. Me, I’ll just do whatever pathetic things I may do, because I love the Savior and rest in the knowledge that my life is in His hands.

If you’re right and I’m wrong, you’ll probably get more stuff than me. Yet, I’ll look our Savior in the face and say, “Well, I didn’t expect or want any stuff. I just wanted you.” If I’m right and you’re wrong, I hope you’re not too disappointed that all that “righteous” living didn’t get all those cool crowns and whatever other stuff you hoped to collect.


2 Corinthians 5:14
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: