The Penalty Box
The penalty box or sin bin is the area in ice hockey... and some other sports where a player sits to serve the time of a given penalty, for an offence not severe enough to merit outright expulsion from the contest. Wikipedia
If the referee in a game decides that a player has broken the rules or committed some offense , he will assign that player to a certain number of minutes in the penalty box. He is still on the team. He just cannot participate for a short season. This may be during a portion of the game that is very important to him and to the team but that is the loss that is suffered.
In a similar way, Paul lists 10 things that will put a Christian in the penalty box. He is still a part of the team but he will sit out the next event on God's calendar. It is not forever, just 1,000 years. He is still on the team and a thousand years is not eternity.
Isn't that the same as purgatory? No, the erroneous idea of purgatory is to pay for your sins. That could never be accomplished by any amount of time of suffering in torments. The idea of the “penalty box” is the suffering of loss of rewards for the Lord's disapproval of how one worked during his Christian life for the Lord.
14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (I Cor 3:14-15)
“Why didn't anyone tell me this? Why isn't this mainstream?”
Because it works hell with the offering. That is why. I am as serious as I can be. Hardly any pastor can preach this. I have only heard one or two. There would be an immediate board meeting right after service, if you know what I mean. Maybe you think it sounds like it has happened to me. It has not but I still know what I am talking about.
I am sure there are pastors who would like to say some things they see in the scriptures but they cannot. There is financial pressure, real or imagined, to stay away from certain subjects. Christians are being robbed of things the bible says and their pastors dare not say them. Hence, the apostolic-type ministries or extra local ministries. The Church Universal is not pastor based. The base is the foundation that the real apostles laid; the scriptures. God has globally focused ministers (itinerant preachers) to handle the difficult subjects. God has thought of everything.
This is a list of the 10 things that will keep us out of the 1,000 year Kingdom.
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (I Cor 6)
And that is another thing you will not get in most churches. You will have to be a bible student for yourself. Does it sound like I am a church basher? I am really not but we have to be more conscious of the One who has sent us and what He thinks of our service than what people may think. God loves the people so much we dare not bruise the sheep with harshness but He loves them too much to not tell them the facts.
As a believer your sins have all been forgiven and they will not be brought up against you ever again. This is in a judicial sense. Jesus has borne the punishment for these things in your place. So then, WHY is there profound disobedience in your service for the Lord? This will not escape mention. You will see the penalty box. You will have to sit out the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus that will be on earth. However, thank God that you are not off the team.
God has almost invented things to reward you for. Like 10 year-olds at a soccer game. All get a trophy. The coach says, “You're all winners”. It's almost impossible to not get a reward. God wants to do this. Jesus does not make 2nd class Christians. It is only if we insist on having our way. If we insist on refusing the help Jesus offers, we can expect to visit the penalty box. Some will think that this teaching is too soft. What I am describing is the best case scenario.
No one, reading this article today, has had the final chapter in his life written. May God help us today to determine to make our service for the Lord genuine and sincere for however much time He gives us.
I think you will find that the Lord is more kind and generous than we may have thought. It is only the ones who have taken His goodness for granted that will discover that He really does mean what He says.
Oct 31, 2023