QUESTION: Would you define the following terms: Illumination, Salvation, Restoration, Rewards, Chastening, and Sanctification? Are they related?
ANSWER: If one has been illumined by the light of God’s Word, accepts it, and continues to walk in that Illumination he or she experiences Salvation from sin (I John 1:7), Restoration/Reconciliation to God (II Corinthians 5:20), and Sanctification, i.e., set apart from this world of sin (John 17:17; I Corinthians 6:11). Having thus become a child of a loving Father, one will then be Chastened by Him to become a partaker of His holiness (Hebrews 12:6-11), and to be the recipient of Rewards, according to his works (Matthew 16:27). Certainly, all of these terms are related. However, the closer kinship is between the words illumination, salvation, restoration, and sanctification, all of which are considered to be synonymous with becoming a child of God, while rewards and chastening occur subsequently.
We need to realize in chastening us that God does not send evil, suffering or sickness upon the children whom He loves, as some teach. However, neither does God protect us from the consequences of our sins, but rather permits us to be chastened thereby that we might not engage further in the sin, causing us to be partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10-11).
ANSWER: The Bible had it’s beginning in the mind of God (II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:21). Through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, inspired men were guided into all truth (John 16:13; John 17:17). All truth as written by these inspired men makes up the gospel of Christ, or the power of God (Romans 1:16), through which “He hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (II Peter 1:3). If we have been given all things that pertain unto life and godliness, it follows then, that which we have been given is complete. James 1:25 refers to the law of Christ (New Testament) as the perfect or complete law of liberty; a law to which none may add nor subtract (I Corinthians 4:6; Galatians 1:6-9; Revelation 22:18-19) without the curse of God!
When the last inspired writer of the New Testament laid aside his pen for the last time, the Bible was complete, final, and everlasting!