What does Tribe teach about bema seat?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on the bema seat starts with a clear distinction: this is not the judgment that determines whether someone goes to heaven or hell. Brian Hunter walks through what the Bible calls the bema, a Greek word for a winner's podium, and he is careful not to soften what that moment will actually be. Every Christian will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The better image is an Olympic medal ceremony rather than a criminal trial. The athlete already knows he won; the judgment confirms and recognizes what has been accomplished. Salvation is settled by grace through faith, but what happens at the bema is something else entirely.
The method of that judgment comes from 1 Corinthians 3. Two kinds of building materials are described: gold, silver, and jewels on one side, and wood, hay, and straw on the other. Fire tests them. Brian connects that fire to the eyes of Jesus, which the Bible describes as burning like flame. When Jesus looks at a person at that moment, nothing is hidden. Every thought, motive, intent, and deed is fully visible. What survives counts. What burns counts for nothing. As Brian puts it, "The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames."
What Jesus is evaluating at the bema, Brian argues, is not salvation but assignment. Drawing from Psalm 139:16 and the idea that every day of a life was recorded in God's book before it began, the teaching is that God prepared specific work for each person, and the bema seat is where that assignment is examined. The stakes of ordinary, daily faithfulness are real. As Brian says, "Every moment matters when forever is your measure."
Taught from 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 · 2 Corinthians 5:10 · Psalm 139:16 · Romans 14:7-12 · Psalm 25
“Every moment matters when forever is your measure.”
From The Bema Seat： Face to Face
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 3:10-15
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble;
13 each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- August 11, 2025 The Bema Seat： Face to Face Brian Hunter teaches Tribe church what the "bema seat" means for Christians: not a courtroom, but a winner's podium where our works are judged by fire.
- August 10, 2025 The Bema Seat A Wyoming pastor walks through what the Bible says Christians will face at the judgment seat of Christ, and why every moment of obedience counts for eternity.