G.H. Pember (England, 1837-1910), the great student of Biblical prophecy and author of Earth’s Earliest Ages, strongly taught the matter of the reward and discipline of the believers in the coming age; that is a topic I have started to cover myself in a recent series of Notes. (See “Once Saved, Always Saved, & Being Saved” • 1)

This is a difficult topic for many believers, because they are generally taught today that once we are saved, there can be no real problem anymore between us and the Lord. They completely, even willfully, overlook the matter of the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10), and the question of whether or not we will reign with Christ during His coming 1,000 year kingdom on this present earth. In contrast to our eternal destiny, which is settled the moment we believe in Christ, we cannot have any assurance regarding whether we will reign with Christ during that time, because that won’t be decided until we stand before His judgment seat (cf. Paul’s view of this in 1 Cor. 9:24-27).

In the excerpt below, G.H. Pember addresses those who are unwilling to consider any of the deeper matters in the Scripture, those who are only willing to hear what they call “the simple gospel.” In particular, he refers to the apostle’s warning in the book of Hebrews that we need to “leave” the basic matters so we may be “brought on to maturity.” Pember begins with this trenchant comment about the basic matters that are listed by the apostle as things we need to “leave”:

We may observe that this list of foundations includes nearly all the doctrines ordinarily heard from our pulpits.

It is really so, even today, almost 150 years after Mr. Pember was writing! May the Lord grant us His grace to heed the warning of the apostle, and of Mr. Pember below, so that we may indeed be “brought on to maturity!”

— G.H. Pember —

The Need to Leave
“The Word of
the Beginning”

Therefore, leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ, let us be brought on to perfection [or, maturity], not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith in God, of the teaching of baptisms and of the laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.
— Hebrews 6:1-2

We may observe that this list of foundations includes nearly all the doctrines ordinarily heard from our pulpits. And yet the Apostle compares those who are incessantly occupied with them to one who wastes labor and time by repeatedly laying down and talking up again the foundation of a building, when he ought to be raising the superstructure. He, therefore, solemnly urges the Hebrews to pass on from first principles to perfection, and presses his exhortation with these words:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and yet have fallen away, to renew again their repentance, crucifying again for themselves the Son of God and putting Him to open shame.
— Hebrews 6:1-2

Now, without entering into the full meaning of these words of terror, we must admit that the context leaves us in no doubt as to the manner of persons who are in danger of the lapse contemplated and the appalling judgment which must inevitably follow it. They are those who refuse to look beyond the first principles of Christ; those who will not study, meditate upon, and suffer the Holy Spirit to mold their minds by, the revelations which God has provided for that purpose, and with which He has bidden us to fill our heart and satisfy our intellect; those who vainly strive to excuse their indolence, and want of appetite for heavenly things, by affirming that the simple Gospel is enough for them.

— The Great Prophecies, Volume 1, Preface, pages vi-vii. Schoettle Publishing; reprinted 1984 from the original edition of 1887.

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— 18 April 2026 —