From: aj@hoqas2.att.com (Ahmad M Jrad)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Reward According to Works
Date: 28 Jul 92 07:19:05 GMT
Organization: AT&T

Peace be to you.

I was reading in Revelations yesterday and I came across the following:

(Quoted from the KJV)
22:10  And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of
this book: for the time is at hand.
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
22:11  He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy,
let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous
still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
22:12  And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give
every man according as his work shall be.
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I have two questions. First the expression "the time is at hand" would
seem to suggest that St. John was trying to tell us that the wolrd would
come to a quick end. In fact this appears in many passages in the New
Testamment. I also believe that early Christians were under the impression
that the end of the world was imminent. (I read that in a book somewhere)
Meanwhile I am reading his words 2000 years later and trying to understand
just what he meant. What was St. John trying to tell us here? (or Jesus
since he revealed it to him)

Second, 22:12 seems to support the argument that works are indeed extremely
important ingredient to happiness in the afterlife (commonly referred to
as salvation). It states in lucid english that every person will be
rewarded according to his work.

That sounds a lot like what Islam teaches which is that of those who have
faith, their rewards will vary according to their deeds. Of course those
who have no faith will be in the flames of Hell. Is that also what Christians
believe? and how do they harmonize that with Paul's views?

Gad Bless.
Ahmad

[I've only run into this view recently, but apparently a number of
Christians believe that there will be varying rewards among the saved.
Jesus talked a lot about rewards and punishments.  He used phrases
like "least in the kingdom", "even Sodom will be better off than you",
etc.  Similarly, I Cor 3:14 ff suggest that Paul had in mind a testing
even for the saved, with varying results.  Thus I think the Biblical
evidence supports this idea.

As to the expectation of the end, I can only say that there is
disagreement among the scholars.  There are certainly some who say
that Jesus, and following him, much of the early church, expected an
immediate second coming.  When it didn't happen, there was a crisis.
They find evidence of it in passages like 1 Thes 4, where some people
seem to be upset by the fact that some Christians have died.  The
theory is that they were expecting the second coming soon enough that
everyone would still be alive.  While I see whether these theories
come from, I don't think the evidence is convincing.  The question is
how literally to take "the time is at hand".  I think the point is
that we must all live realizing that at any moment we may be called
into God's presence, as Jesus emphasized in several parables (e.g.
Mat 15:1ff, Lk 12:35ff).  But this is a matter of our perspective on
life and our values, not a literal expectation that Christ will come
on a certain date.  I believe the passages in Paul show, not that the
whole church expected an immediate return and was upset when it
failed, but a group of people who were the ancient equivalent of
plenty of groups we've seen who are into "date-setting".

--clh]