The evidence from Scripture is overwhelming in showing us that genuine believers in Christ may face a serious, though temporary, discipline from the Lord in the coming age, which will be the 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth, and which is often called “the millennium.” After that, all of the genuine believers in Christ will enter into the eternal state of blessing together with the Lord.

This understanding of salvation refutes both of the extreme, and false, teachings regarding salvation common among Christians today: the one, to teach that genuinely saved believers can lose their eternal salvation; and the other, opposite extreme, to teach that, once a person is saved, there can be no serious problem between him and the Lord, regardless of how he lives his Christian life, since his sins are already forgiven.

The truth of the coming discipline of the believers is set forth in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:23-35, which we have been considering in this series. Just as with believers in Christ, He indeed had his initial debt forgiven; nonetheless, he was eventually “delivered…to the tormentors.” Yet, this was a temporary discipline, to last only “until he should repay all that was owed” (Matt. 18:34). It is this discipline that will take place during the 1,000 years, when the Lord, the real “King,” comes to “settle accounts” with His believers (Matt. 18:23-24; cf. 2 Cor. 5:10).

This same truth is contained in many other portions of the New Testament as well. The foolish virgins being shut out of the wedding feast (Matt. 25:10); the unprofitable servant being cast into the outer darkness (Matt. 25:30); the branches in the Lord being cast into the fire to be burned (John 15:6); the master’s servants being beaten with many or few stripes, depending on how much they knew of their master’s will (Luke 12:45-38); those believers who are indeed saved, “yet, so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15); and many other portions as well, are speaking of the Lord’s dealing with His unfaithful believers in the coming age.

To try to teach, as some do, that each of these cases refer to false believers, rather than to genuine Christians, is to do violence to the meaning of Scripture, even “torturing” it, “as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own ruin” (2 Pet. 3:16).

Such portions of scripture become intelligible to us only when we realize that, quite often, what the New Testament has in view regarding the salvation of the believers is not eternity, but the millennium which shall precede it. Will that be a time of blessing for us, or a time of discipline? That is not determined when we first believe in Christ; rather, it will only be made clear at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10), based upon how we lived our Christian life.

And while these passages are a very sober warning to the believers, there is a positive aspect to them as well, namely, when we understand they are not actually referring to losing our salvation, it gives us a much firmer assurance that, yes, as the believers in Christ, regardless of how we spend the 1,000 years, in the end we shall indeed reign with the Lord “forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5).

But, while we know from the Scriptures that believers will be disciplined in the coming age, the matter of how that discipline will be carried out is not so definite. Regarding that, we only seem to have some hints, here and there, in the New Testament.

And that is what we will consider in the next Note in this series.

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—  15 July 2025 —