Reward and Recompense / January 1998

Reward and Recompense

Contents

• Reward and Recompense
• Obeying the Law
• The Prophet Side

When the Lord comes, He comes with a reward for us. Rewards by simple definition are good things. The mere mention of the word will perk our attention with the obvious questions, “What is it?” If you were to ask the average person what is the reward, you would most likely get a blank stare and shrugged shoulders. We tend to think of rewards in materialistic terms. However, we know that God is bringing something far better than materialistic things.

The Lord is also bringing something else with Him: recompense. And this recompense is to precede the reward part. Ask a believer what the recompense is about and you will get even more blank stares and shrugs of ignorance.

Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.

Isaiah 40:10

The recompense of God is payment for the deeds of all men. It begins first with the house of God and makes it way through the unbelieving and disobedient. This payment of God is judgment upon them.

According to their deeds, so He will repay, Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; To the coastlands He will make recompense.

Isaiah 59:18

Understanding the reward and the recompense of God is key to understanding what will happen to us and what we will see. Reward is positive and recompense is negative. The coming of the Lord for us is positive, but to an unbelieving world it is negative. However, when you are in the midst of God's judgment falling upon the world, it is difficult to stay focused on the positive and trust the Lord. This is why the prophets have foretold so much of the Great Tribulation, especially the negative aspects of things to come. The purpose is to orient us to the things that we will see. We need to remain focused on the Word of God and trust what the Lord has said.

Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, but He will save you.”

Isaiah 35:4

For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds.

Matthew 16:27

You will only look on with your eyes, and see the recompense of the wicked.

Psalms 91:8

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen.

Revelation 1:7

“His reward is with Him and His recompense is before Him,” this phrase describing the Lord's return, summarizes the purpose of the Great Tribulation, the resurrection, and the Day of the Lord. It is, however, the least understood expression of the second coming. Consider for a moment the sequence given. It clearly states that the recompense of God comes first, then the rewards. However, the clear expectation of the pretribulationist is that the reward (rapture) comes first then the judgment and wrath (recompense) comes later.

This expectation is a clear reversal of God's plan. The misunderstanding doesn't end there. The nature of the reward coming with the Lord and the recompense to be paid has been distorted as well.

As also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

II Peter 3:16

Peter referred to the teaching of Paul and said that some men would distort the meaning of the prophecies to their own destruction. The pretribulationist believes that while they are raptured off the earth, others on the earth will survive the Day of the Lord. These poor survivors will serve as slaves to churchmen during the millennial kingdom. This is bizarre stuff, to say the least. According to this belief, God doesn't do a very good job of paying back sinners for their deeds, that the God's judgment is the broad brush approach leaving a few souls for the millennial reign. This is actually the fulfillment of Peter's warning in our days.

The judgment and recompense of God is clearly defined in the Scripture contrary to the idea that any mortal will survive.

Near is the great day of the Lord, near and coming very quickly; listen, the day of the Lord! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and battle cry, against the fortified cities and the high corner towers. And I will bring distress on men, so that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord's wrath; and all the earth will be devoured in the fire of His jealousy, for He will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Zepheniah 1:14-18

How can anyone teach that mortals will survive the Day of Lord, in light of these words? The answer is that they do not understand either the Old or New Testament prophets. Peter said that such men are untaught and unstable. He said that they twist the other Scriptures as well. The other Scriptures in question are the Torah, the teaching of Moses with God's commandments. In our days, we can see them very clearly. They are men who do not know nor teach Moses and the Prophets. They even deny the commandments of God, outright annulling and canceling them. Yeshua referred to them as “least in the kingdom.”

Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:19

Church leaders refer to the Old Testament teaching as something done away with, annulled by God, and of none effect any longer. Not limited to commandments they also deny the Old Testament prophecies of the second coming.

“The clear-cut teaching of the New Testament is that the Law of Moses has been rendered inoperative with the death of Christ; in other words, the law in its totality no longer has authority over any individual; it is no longer the rule of life.”

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Th.M., Ph.D.; Israelology: The Missing Link in Systematic Theology, pg 750.

Fruchtenbaum considers himself to be a spokesman for the church and is a staunch supporter of the pretribulationist view. Tragically, almost all evangelical churchmen are in agreement with his statements.

Pretribulationists and dispensationalists believe people will survive the wrath of God, the Day of the Lord. They do not believe the prophecies concerning total and complete judgment where every man will have his deeds judged.

“Though a great many Gentiles will be killed through the course of Tribulation and Gentile armies will suffer slaughter in the Campaign of Armageddon, a number will still be living.”

Fruchtenbaum, pg 887.

According to the resulting dispensational teaching, the occupants of the earth still left after the Lord returns will be under the authority of the church and churchmen. This teaching has twisted the Scriptures for their own purposes; but ironically, they have also twisted them to their own destruction. The New Testament says very clearly, after the death of Christ, that any man setting aside the Law of Moses will receive a very severe recompense from God.

Fruchtenbaum's statement concerning the Law of Moses is an example of a distortion that will lead to destruction. Although he is a highly educated man by the world's standard, he is an untaught and unstable man according to the Bible. He has then twisted the prophetic word to produce bazaar, self-gratifying, and conceited concepts promoting self and personal interpretation. The most frightening part of this is that people follow these words of men and yet claim to follow the words of Scripture. Is it no wonder why they will be destroyed in the days ahead. They do the opposite of the Scripture.

Advocating that the recompense comes first (the tribulation) and the coming of the Lord with His rewards follows is enough to cause churchmen to cringe. But advocating that the Lord's original commandments are still in effect will cause a churchman to declare you a heretic. In a recent critique of myself, a local pastor complained that my prophetic views were all wrong and supported by another theological “system.” He was referring to my references of the whole Bible as still being in effect. That was the “system” he was commenting on. I find it ironic that the same man waves his whole Bible before the assembly instructing them not to listen to any man but the Word of God; and then, critiques me for doing the same and encouraging people to obey the Lord. Peter was right when he equated a distorted view of Paul's prophetic teaching with a distortion of the other Scriptures. Clearly, the other Scriptures referred to by Peter were the Old Testament, the only Scriptures that co-existed at the time of Paul's instruction. It requires massive amounts of ignorance and unbelief to distort the millennial kingdom into a church defined program of them being in charge.

But doesn't the Scripture say something about us “reigning” in the millennial kingdom? “Who are we to reign over?” you ask? The answer is simple: We don't reign over, we reign with.

If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us;

II Timothy 2:12

And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.

Revelation 5:10

Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:6

Some will continue to argue that there must be someone to “reign over” in the millennial kingdom and will be dissatisfied with this simple answer. So, let's examine it a bit further. The government of God in the millennial kingdom will be theocracy, not colonial churchianity. We know that there will be many saints and differing levels of saints from least to greatest. We also know that there will be many children in the kingdom, even new born children in the millennial kingdom.

“And as for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring's offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever.”

Isaiah 59:21

The smallest one will become a clan, and the least one a mighty nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.

Isaiah 60:22

For a little one to become a clan or a nation, there must be the birth of those forming the clan or nation. There will be a sense of reigning over, but from the context within the family of God. Just as fathers oversee their households or tribes are formed with heads of households overseeing other households, so the family of God will be established with those having oversight upon the earth. It will also be an oversight with each brother humbling themselves to one another in the Lord.

Living in the millennial kingdom is part of God's reward. Maybe the greatest reward of all is life itself and to dwell with the Lord. However, there are other rewards to be distributed among His servants. Counsel is given to ensure their surety.

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 6:1

The timing of God's rewards is connected with the seventh trumpet angel of Revelation and coincidently with God's wrath on the earth.

And the seventh angel sounded [seventh trumpet]… And the nations were enraged, and Thy wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to The bond-servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.

Revelation 11:15a,18

But what exactly are the rewards that God has planned for us?

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

James 1:12

And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

I Peter 5:4

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Revelation 2:10

What will you do with this crown of life?

It will be a very nice gift to lay at the feet of our King.

Recently, I heard a speech by Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel, at a White House function. I would like to borrow from it to make my last point and summarize the good things of the reward.

A couple of Yeshiva students were discussing the finer points of when the dawn of a day begins. The first argued that the dawn of a day was when you could distinguish between a man and a woman walking down the street. The second said that it was seeing the difference between a fig tree and an olive tree. They then asked their aged rabbi when he thought the dawn of a day began. He replied, “The day has begun to dawn when all men call their enemies, their brothers.” To me, the great reward coming with our King is the new day when all of us will be brethren and have One Lord.

But don't be fooled brethren, the recompense must come first, then the rewards.

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Obeying the Law

Do you stop at a traffic stop sign every time? If you see no crossing traffic, do you still stop for the sign? Even though you know the sign is made of metal shaped into an octagon, painted red and white with the word “STOP”, and mounted on a pole stuck in the ground, do you still stop? Do you stop for this sign because you understand its intent is to protect you from crossing traffic or do you stop just out of habit?

Law abiding citizens do stop for stop signs, even though there is no approaching traffic, even though they know the sign is nothing more that a man-made piece of metal attached to a post. Why? Maybe it is just a habit or maybe they have learned that it is safer to always obey traffic signs, to not get into the habit of offending traffic laws. Maybe they fear that a policeman is watching with the authority to give them a ticket. We call these people lawful citizens. No one would suggest that they are doing it to be more righteous than anyone else. No one would suggest that they are causing harm to others by keeping the law. No one would think that they are keeping the law to condemn lawbreakers.

I posed this discussion recently to some folks that were arguing whether we should obey God's commandments. I asked them, “If you can see the wisdom of keeping man's commandments for traffic, why can't you see the wisdom of keeping God's commandments for life?”

Keeping the commandments of God does not make one more righteous than another. It does not cause harm to new believers. It is not the behavior of heretics. It is the behavior of people who call Him Lord and do what He says. The Bible calls these people lawful and upright before the Lord. The unlawful person resents such behavior simply because it highlights to themselves their disobedience before the Lord. However, being lawful is not for the condemnation of anyone.

Whether it is foods or sabbath, the commandments of the Lord are right and correct. So why don't people simply obey the commandments of God?

There are probably a number of reasons. Ignorance of God's commandments is probably the dominant reason. They just don't know about the “stop” sign God set up for those items. Maybe they know the sign is there but have decided to “run” it since it looked safe to them. I have heard some argue that if you stop for one “stop” sign you have to stop for them all. (Makes sense to me, but they use that as an excuse to not obey.) Whatever the reason for disobedience, the wisdom of God's commandment is still clear.

Recently, I heard of a court case where some teenage kids stole a stop sign as a prank. Apparently, they had been doing it for sometime. Finally, someone drove into one of those intersections with no sign and was killed along with an entire family. Not only was there that tragedy of an accident but the families of the teenagers were devastated when they were given prison sentences. Obviously, the stop sign by itself does not mean that much, but its absence from the intersection has dire consequences.

The same can be said for God's commandments. Some people flaunt the grace of God and take the stop signs down. Some just “run” the stop sign and transgress the commandments willfully. I can understand the behavior of some brethren who have never been taught the commandments and are blocked from learning them by their teachers. But I do not understand that how grace can be an alternative system of guidelines or replacement for spiritual laws.

Let me illustrate. Some people's teaching of grace as applied to traffic signs goes something like this.

“Now those stop signs were put there a long time ago when the automobile first was very slow. Now with much faster cars, we can get across the intersection faster, and no longer need the stop sign.”

“I drive by faith and am led by the spirit of God and, therefore, we are protected by God and no longer need those traffic laws. We should, in fact, not obey any of those laws because it indicates that we are not trusting the Lord nor driving by faith.”

“Those laws are no longer applicable to us. We only drive on the interstate church system and hardly see those sign any ways. In fact, I frequently fly now days and everyone knows there are no stop signs in the sky. Those laws are of no value to me.”

Each of you can see the absurdity of these arguments against a traffic stop sign. This is the same absurdity I hear from religious teachers who take the commandments of God and dismiss them for reasons of grace.

The next time you get stopped for a traffic violation, tell the police officer that the grace of God permits you to ignore the Law. See how far that gets you.

Running stop signs is not an example of grace. Grace is getting a warning ticket instead of paying the fine. Transgressing God commandments does not make grace bigger nor does faith replace the law.

Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

Romans 3:31

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Romans 6:15

So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Romans 7:12

Stopping for a stop sign is an example of your faith in the traffic law system which was established for your good. It does not prevent you from getting somewhere; it ensures that you get there alive.

God's Law does the same.

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