Consider first that our church is a conservative, leaning very conservative, Minnesota Baptist church. I would call it a stereotypical conservative American Evangelical Protestant church, but that might sound negative (there’s that passive-aggressive tendency I referred to above). As such, we get a fair bit of “culture war” preaching in the guise of Biblical principles.

With that context in mind, “a faith worth dying for” was couched in the terms of the question, “what is biblically certain, but politically incorrect?”, with the story of Stephen woven throughout. Yesterday, at least, the answers – vastly summarized here – were:

1. Life begins and finds its value in God. As human beings, we do not have the authority to determine for ourselves when to create and when to end life. (Gen 1:1)
2. Male and female express God’s explicit design. Any other pattern or expression of relationship is biblically incorrect. (Gen 1:27)
3. Israel is the Covenant land and people of God. There is no distinction between Israel the political state and Israel the Covenant land of God. (Gen 17:8)
4. Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. In the vortex of a pluralistic, relativistic culture, there has been, is and will only be one path for eternal salvation. (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Rom 10:9-10)

Essentially, we ought to be willing to defend and/or die for any one of these expressions of faith. Or more generally, we ought to be willing to defend and/or die for an explicitly biblical lifestyle against the prevailing winds of current culture.

I know that in terms of accepting the above four points, I choke hardest on #3, Israel. TC just wrote about dismantling dispensationalism on his blog, rejecting that -ism’s viewpoint that “God has a distinct program for Israel and a distinct program for the church” in favor of Jesus as the New Israel with all peoples united in him (Eph 2:15-16). I don’t know for sure if my pastor is a dispensationalist, but my hackles tend to raise whenever someone starts pushing support of Israel as “the Christian thing to do”, whether it be political, economic, religious or theological. I guess I tie it too closely to escapist eschatology and ridiculous rapture watching, especially those American Christians who make a trip to “the homeland” as some sort of pilgrimage.

I wonder, which or how many of the above four points would you be willing to wager your life on?

What?! Judged on works? Isn’t accepting Christ by faith enough for admittance into heaven and the joys of paradise? I’m going to suggest that the first part, admittance into “heaven”, or the New Heavens/Earth if you will, is based on faith, but that the joys and reward we find there are based on something different, namely our works done “in Christ”.

Our starting point is 1 Peter 1.17-19:

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

When we read about the Father’s judgment, we tend to jump to Revelation 20.11-15:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. [...] All whose names were not found written in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the separation of the sheep and goats, the eternal division of those who accepted the message and authority of Jesus Christ from those who did not. Once the sheep have been set aside, I’m suggesting that there is an additional “judgment”, based on these passages from Paul:

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:18-19)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive what is due them for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Cor 5.10)

Each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved-even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Cor 3.10b-15)

That is, once we have been admitted to heaven as sheep in the Father’s judgment, we then face Christ’s judgment for our eternal reward, e.g. the treasure stored up for us based on our conduct and actions “in the body”. This is what I believe John is referring to in Revelation 20:10, where he notes that “the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

If admittance to heaven is based solely on our proclamation of faith, then nothing else we have done matters in the first judgment of the sheep and goats. Instead, works are only after we have been saved and admitted to heaven.

In a sense, there *is* a properity gospel, but it’s not the one preached by Osteen et al. It is, instead, one of eternal prosperity: work out the fact of your salvation with good deeds, in fear and trembling, and you not only improve the lot of those around you, but you build up the reward for yourself in the life to come. Those who enjoy riches now to their own pleasure may pass through the fire, but they will lose everything and will be the poorest people in Heaven, while those who forsake pleasure in the body for the work of the Kingdom will be rewarded and elevated to the highest status.