So Which Judgment for You?

The religious lady spoke of her fear of having to face God, “On Judgment day.” It was one of the reasons she got out of bed early nearly every week morning to attend Mass, believing if she was faithful in that practice, God would look upon her with mercy on that day. She’s not the only one to hold that belief of course; it’s what her church teaches. The community service do-gooder told me that when he stands before God, “I hope he’ll choose me as a sheep and not a goat!” When informing both that their acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ would deliver them once and for all from such fear and false hope, they were reluctant to listen to what I had to say.

Whether people admit it or not, the thought of standing before God on Judgment day frightens the living daylights out of them. Yet at the same time, they’d rather hold to their faulty concepts about such a day than listen to the truth that God has revealed about it in the Bible. Reported comments from Pope Francis in recent days are not helping matters either; he’s simply adding to the confusion. Apparently he says all that even an atheist has to do to get into heaven is, “do good.” Why would someone who doesn’t believe in God care about getting into heaven in the first place? Besides, there are more atheists in the world “doing good” than there are “doing bad”! Even among Protestants there’s an appalling ignorance on this very serious matter.

Most people believing in judgment have the concept that one day they’ll be raised from death to stand in one gigantic assembly before God and when He calls their name they’ll come forward to hear the record of their life read from a book in the presence of all. They hope that all the good they did will outweigh all the bad and as a result God will place them to His right as one of His sheep. Those whose bad outweighed the good will be placed to God’s left as a goat. When all judgment is completed the sheep enter heaven and the goats enter hell. Such a concept is based on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 25:31-33. In the meantime living on earth, they believe it impossible (and presumptuous) for anyone to know they can have assurance of heaven before death.

Churches fostering the idea of one general judgment misrepresent the Scriptures immensely. Worse – they misrepresent God totally! The apostle Paul was not playing religious games with religious words when he exhorted us to rightly divide the word of truth 2 Timothy 2:15. He was saying this is our one sure safeguard against the errors, inventions, opinions, deceptions and false doctrines of religious men and women. The one who obeys that command is no longer a prisoner to such people and their foolishness. A disciplined study of God’s judgment for example, will reveal to the student that there are, in fact, five separate judgments. It is true that everyone from Adam to the last person born on earth will stand before God for judgment, but which judgment?

Firstly, every accountable person outside of Jesus Christ has already been judged by God and found guilty. The charge? Sinner. The penalty? Death. He who does not believe is condemned (judged) already John 3:18. However, the Christian gospel is not called Good News for nothing. God offers sinners a glorious alternative, “turn from your sin, turn to Christ and live.” That’s called repentance. For the one who repents, Jesus says, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life John 5:24. Theologians call this “present salvation.” Jesus paid the price of death for the believer’s sins. He was judged in his/her place and he/she will not come into judgment.   

On the grounds of Jesus’ substitutional death, all believers are separated from their sins forever Psalm 103:12. They’ve been blotted out, never to be remembered by God again Isaiah 43:25. From that point on we are to judge ourselves for sins, acknowledge and confess them before the Lord and they too get blotted out and forgotten about. If we don’t judge ourselves Christ will do it for us and bring discipline. I strongly recommend judging yourself! The second judgment is the believer’s judgment, known as the Judgment seat of Christ. When the church stands before the Lord, each believer will be judged according to their works, not their sins 2 Corinthians 5:10. In other words, it is a rewards judgment. Some will be ashamed, some will lose rewards, but nobody will lose their salvation.

The third judgment will be upon the Jews during the time of the Great Tribulation. The basis of this judgment is their rejection of the Godhead. They rejected God the Father in the days of Samuel 1 Samuel 8:7. They rejected God the Son in the days of Christ Luke 23:18 and they rejected God the Holy Spirit in the days of Stephen Acts 7:51. It was because of these rejections that God scattered them among the nations of the world until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. During the Great Tribulation so great will be their suffering, they’ll be forced to humble themselves and call upon the Lord. Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives, the Jews will look upon Him whom they have pierced Zechariah 12:10 and as a nation they will be converted – born again.

The fourth judgment will be that of the Nations. This is the one causing people to hold those faulty concepts of Judgment Day mentioned at the start of this post. This judgment takes place at the end of the Great Tribulation, When the Son of Man comes in His glory,….. All nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats Matthew 25:31-46. The Great Tribulation itself will be God’s judgment upon the world for its wickedness; multitudes will turn to Christ. God’s judgment upon the Nations will be for the way each one treated the Jews during that 7-year period. The “sheep nations” will be saved; the “goat nations” will be destroyed. After this judgment, the Lord will set up His millennial Kingdom reign on the earth.

The fifth and final judgment is known as The Great White Throne Judgment Revelation 20:11-15. This judgment takes place at the end of the Millennium – 1000 years after the Judgment of the Nations. The apostle John saw a great white throne, and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. All the wicked dead now resurrected will look for a hiding place from the face of Jesus Christ, but they will look in vain! There’s no hiding place! There’s never been a hiding place! At this judgment the dead, small and great (the nobodies and the somebodies) will stand trembling before God. Each will be shown that God, in His mercy, did provide space for them in the book of life, so they’ll know they are without excuse.

They will be judged to ascertain the degree of their punishment. God is just and since there are degrees of punishment, some people will be punished more than others, but nobody will escape because all of them rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior. That’s one reason they’ll be punished. In relation to works, God has kept a record of every person’s life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. There’s no acquittal from this judgment … there’s no higher court that one can appeal to. The lost are lost forever, damned for all eternity, without hope. Not only no hope, but no love, no sympathy. The love of God does not extend itself to the inhabitants of the lake of fire Revelation 20:15. 

Down through the years I’ve had both angry religious and angry non-religious people sneer at me asking, “What sort of a God would allow such a diabolical punishment as to be damned for all eternity?” My answer today is, “Your god. The god of unbelief. The god of man-centered religion. The god of secularism. The god of evolutionary humanism. The god of Marxism. The god of Communism. The god of Collectivism. The god of Globalism. The god of materialism. The god of sexual immorality and perversion. The god of man-made climate change. The god of travel. The god of sport. The god of television and radio. The god of movies and entertainment. The god of social and mainstream media. The god of lies and deception. The god of drugs and alcohol. The god of rebellion.” Your god! Not my God.

Which one of those is your god? For if the God of the Bible is not your God, one (or more) of those is and, every one of them belongs to Satan! It is often said by Christians that God doesn’t send people to hell, people send themselves there. That’s true, but it’s more accurate to say, “Your god sends you there.” My God’s name is Jesus and He has told you that the everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels, it was not prepared for you Matthew 25:41. So, one (or more) of those angels is your god. Are you going to be so foolish as to allow it/them to send you to a place that was never designed for you to inhabit? And, if reading this you’re now saying, “What a lot of nonsense,” then two of your gods are identified – unbelief and rebellion.  

These gods or devil’s angels mentioned here, along with countless others not mentioned, are known in the Bible as principalities and powers Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 2:15. Along with Satan and all his powers, the Lord Jesus Christ overcame and disarmed the lot of them! After His resurrection from death and His ascension to heaven, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, putting them to open shame. People ask why then is there so much wickedness and evil still existing in the world? The world is the wrong place to be focusing. Your heart, your innermost being is the place to be focusing. That’s the place Jesus and the Holy Spirit seek to work on Mark 7:21-23. Wickedness and evil will finally be dealt with at the Great White Throne.

So which judgment for you? The ‘one general judgment’ idea is the invention of religious men. Five separate Judgments is the biblical revelation – each one gets carried out at a different time, at a different place, for a different purpose. All details have not been given here about these judgments, but the facts have. If you haven’t as yet, acknowledge the fact that you’ve already been judged by God as a sinner and found, “Guilty!” Act on the command of God, repent of your sin, receive the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ and be found, “Not guilty!” If you do so, the next judgment for you is one of eternal rewards, not one of eternal punishment. Life or death – it’s yours to choose. How’s that for mercy?! “For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD, “Therefore turn and live!” Ezekiel 18:32.