THE TRUTH ABOUT "JUDGMENT DAY"
JUDGMENT FOR ALL
Righteous or Sinful
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by Keith Hunt The below is taken from the little booklet "Our Daily Bread" one of the 2007 editions. Quote "Out of the depths" the psalmist cries to God (Ps.130:1). His problem surfaces: terrible guilt for things done and undone in the past. "If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (v.3). But, thankfully, God forgives. He does not keep an account of past sins, no matter how many and how grievous they have been. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rum. 8:1). God's forgiveness then leads us to fear Him (Ps.130:4). We worship and adore God, for grace and forgiveness cause us to love Him all the more. But what happens if we slide back into old sins? What if sin lingers? We are to rent and "wait for the LORD" and be patient while God works (vv.5-6). We are not hopeless cases. We can "hope" in the One who will deliver us in His time. We now have these two assurances: God's unfailing love - He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb.13:5). And God's promise of full redemption in due time - He will redeem us from all our iniquities (Ps.130:8) and present us before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy (Jude 24). We're forgiven! We're free! With the psalmist, let's worship the Lord as we await His coming. - David Roper How blest is he whose trespass Has freely been forgiven, Whose sin is wholly covered Before the sight of heaven. - Psalter WHEN WE'RE FORGIVEN, NO RECORD IS KEPT OF OUR FAILURES. End Quote .................................................... BUT MANY CHRISTIANS FROM MANY CHURCHES, HAVE THIS IDEA THAT WE SHALL ALL STAND BEFORE GOD/JESUS AND TO GET OUR REWARD WE ARE JUDGED OPENLY BY ALL THAT WE DID AND SAID IN OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE, BE IT GOOD OR BAD!
Christianity teaches this great and glorious good news. We, as repentant sinners, are FORGIVEN of our sins through the shed blood of Christ Jesus our Savior. What is also taught by the Word of God is that when our sins are washed away, God does not REMEMBER THEM, if He did, then as we have read above, who would be able to STAND. Maybe someone like a Job, would have a good chance of standing, BUT few indeed are a Job. The rest of us could not stand before God. The good news is that God does not keep an account of our sins, if we are a humble repentant child of His with Jesus as our interceding High Priest and Savior. Note these verses: "Blessed is he whose transgression is FORGIVEN and whose sin is COVERED. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth (remembers) not iniquity...." Ps.32:1-2 "Hide thy face from my sins, and BLOT out all mine iniquities. Ps. 51:9 "Thou hast FORGIVEN the iniquity of Thy people, thou hast COVERED all their sin" Ps.85:2 "As far as the EAST IS FROM THE WEST, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." Ps.103:12 "'Come now, let us reason together' says the Lord, 'though your sins be as SCARLET they shall be as WHITE as snow; though they be RED like crimson, they shall be as WOOL." Isa.1:18 "I, EVEN I, an He that BLOTTETH out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and WILL NOT REMEMBER they sins. " Isa. 43:25 "...for they shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will FORGIVE their iniquity, and I will REMEMBER their sin NO MORE." Jer.31:34 "If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he hath robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall not die. NONE of his sins that he hath committed SHALL BE MENTIONED unto him ... he shall surely live." Ezek.33:15-16 "I will be MERCIFUL to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities WILL I REMEMBER NO MORE." Heb.8:12 PLAIN AND WONDERFUL The teaching of the Scriptures is CLEAR! When a person REPENTS and is from that point on a humble repentant child of God, then their sins are FORGIVEN, washed away in the blood and interceding work of Christ Jesus. The Father looks upon His child as white as snow, as white as wool. Sins are blotted out, washed away, cleansed from the book of life. Those sins God will NOT REMEMBER or hold against us ... EVER! They are GONE! They are not there! They do not exist! I give EMPHASIS to all this simple and plain truth, because the some parts of the Christian world have another teaching that CONTRADICTS this. I have in the past heard the same church and the same teacher, weeks apart maybe, but nevertheless the two teachings coming from the same church or fellowship. We have on the one hand, all the teaching of a FORGIVING God that washes away sin form the life of the repentant believer, yet at the same time it is preached that one day we must all stand before the judgment seat of God and be judged for all that we have done and said and thought. The latter teaching is usually backed up with such verses as: "I said, in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work." Ecc.3:7 "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." Ecc.11:9 "And God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." Ecc. 12:14 "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Mat.26:36-37 "For there is nothing hid, which shall not be made manifest; neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad." Mark 4:22 "For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the era in the closet, shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." Luke 12:2-3 "But why do you judge thy brother ... for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ ... So that everyone of us shall give account of himself to God." Rom.14:10,12 "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it ..." 1 Cor.3:13 "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad." 2 Cor.5:10 "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Heb.9:27 "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it ... And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before god; and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works..." Rev.20:11-12 There maybe other verses that are used, but I think you get the sense of it all. First, we are told correctly that God FORGIVES and FORGETS - does not REMEMBER our sins, if we are truly His child (how we are His children is fully and in-depth, explain in many studies on this Website), then we are told by some, that one day when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that all of our good and bad things come up to be judged. Many people have the idea that when they come before the judgment seat of Christ, there will be something like a GIANT TV screen, and all things we have done, in body, mind, thought, action, will flash up on the screen for ALL TO SEE! It will be to some, kinda like the old TV series "This is Your Life" but with the title "This WAS your life" and everything we have said and done and thought, will be made manifest for all to see and hear. Then adding all the events up from the record books of our life, we shall be rewarded accordingly. We may have LIFE and a pretty good REWARD but nevertheless our sins (body and mind) and righteous deeds HAVE COME UP BEFORE ALL TO SEE! This idea to me is not only frightening, but will be TERRIBLY EMBARRASSING!! I sure do not want to see all my sins (body and mind) from my entire life, being brought forth to ME, never mind the rest of the universe. I can think of nothing more embarrassing to have ones sins shown to the universe. Yet, some teach that this is what Scripture tells us will happen to each and every one of us. It is enough for me to have recorded some of David's sins, and other sins of the children of God, in the Bible. I sure do not want to see up on some heavenly TV screen ALL the sins of David that he committed in his life (body, and mind). I sure do not want to see all of mine flashed before me and everyone. A FALSE DOCTRINE Fortunately, this idea of judgment for the saints, is totally false, and will not happen. Our sins will not be broadcasted for all the universe to see and hear. First, we need to have the clear picture of SALVATION. We have seen above, the plain verses that tell us that a child of the Father, a child with a humble repentant mindset, is clean from sin, is to God, as white as snow, as white as wool. All sins are not only forgiven through the total work of Christ, but they are also NOT REMEMBERED by God. This is the very truth of the matter, this should be very good news to all true Christians. Our sins will not appear, not be flashed up on some heavenly TV screen for all to see, in the judgment day. So what is judgment day all about? The Scriptures do say ALL will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. But the children of God NOW in this life, are BEING JUDGED. Yes, our judgment is NOW. This truth is told us in 1 Peter 4:17, "For the time IS COME that judgment must begin at the house of God ..." Salvation is by GRACE, not works. God is not judging or accounting in some books, adding up our good works and bad works to determine if we qualify for salvation. If we are a true child of God (by our attitude of repentance and having Jesus as our personal Savior) then salvation for us is not a judgmental matter that God still has to tally up. Salvation does not depend on having more good works than bad works. We are not SAVED by works, but by GRACE. This wonderful truth is fully expounded in my study on this Website called "Saved by Grace." But, the Bible makes it also clear that our REWARD that we get at the coming of Christ in glory, when we shall stand before Him, before His judgment seat or throne, is determined by how WORKS. One verse to prove that is Revelation 22:12. There are other verses that say the same thing, but one should be enough. God is not obliged to have to repeat it two or three or a dozen times to make it stick. So with all this basic truth laid down, it should be evident that the judging NOW upon the house of God, the church of God, the children of God, is a judging that will determine our REWARD that is given to us when Jesus returns, handed out to us at His judgment seat. The book of Revelation says it is when we appear upon the sea of glass before and with Him, that we receive our reward - see Revelation 11:15-18; 14:1-5; 19:1-16; 20:1-4. Notice in Revelation 19:1-8. The servants of the Lord, the WIFE to marry the LAMB - the Church of God to marry the Son of God is granted that she should be in CLEAN AND WHITE fine linen - the RIGHTEOUSNESS of the saints. There is NO DIRTY linen connected to this marriage. The Lambs 'wife does not have a mixture of clean and unclean linen, she does not have linen that is both white and black. She ONLY APPEARS to marry Jesus the Lamb in CLEAN AND WHITE LINEN! The sins of the Church of God, the people that make up the church, ARE NOT THERE!! I guess not, for we have seen the Scriptures tell us that God's true children have been FORGIVEN of their sins, have had their sins WASHED AWAY, and God does NOT REMEMBER them any longer! Nothing could be clearer than this in the Bible. I will not see your sins, and you will not see mine, in the day of standing before the seat of Christ. PRAISE THE LORD! Now the picture should becoming clear. All will appear before Christ, that is made clear to us by many verses in the Bible, and the New Testament especially. You will either appear before Him with NO SIN, as His clean Bride, dressed in white linen, or appear before Him WITH sin. There are TWO basic classes then. This is what Paul was saying in Romans 2: 6-8; "Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath." This is the same truth recorded for us way back in Ezekiel's day. "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall NOT be MENTIONED unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live (true repentance in humility and a mindset to serve and follow the correct pathway of God's life gives you LIFE where none of your sins are remembered)....But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall NOT BE MENTIONED: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die." Ezekiel 18:21-24. There it is friends. You do the right about face - repent and serve the ways of the true God, you will have life, and NO SIN mentioned or remembered. If you will not repent or turn away from serving God back into a life mindset of sin, you die, with no righteousness that you may have done remembered. Kind of SOBERING is it not. Yes, but GLORIOUS and WONDERFUL for those who are the children of God. For them the day of standing before the judgment seat of Christ, means NO SIN mentioned, not even remembered. What LOVE, from the Father, what JOY and FREEDOM for His children! If you are a practicing sinner, one who was not called in this life, or one who turned down his calling, or turned away from his calling at some point, then as Paul said, there is indignation and wrath. Only sins will be remembered. For those in sin who were not called and chosen in this life time there is HOPE, but that is another truth of God that is expounded in another study "The White Throne Judgment" - or "The Last Great Day Feast" - so I refer you to it, and will not take the time here to go over that truth. If you are one that has been called and you rejected that calling, or one who turned away from that calling, who did not endure to the end in that calling, then indeed WRATH will be yours. Hebrews chapter 10:26-31 is about those who have rejected salvation. They will have no righteousness they may have done mentioned. They will have only sins before them and before the judgment seat of Christ. TWO categories exist before the judgment seat, or in the judgment day of the Most High God's time table. You are either righteous, in clean white linen or you are filthy, in unclean linen of sin. Jesus spoke about this a number of times during His ministry. "When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory (the righteous and judgment throne). And before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from the other, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats..." Mat.25:31-32. The parable Jesus continues to give is pretty clear. The sheep are on ONE side, the goats are on the OTHER side. The sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left hand. You will notice the sheep ONLY HAVE GOOD things said about them. The true children of God are NOT perfect, they do sin in this life time, the rest of the New Testament makes all that very clear (see 1 John 1:6-2:6). But their sins are washed away through Christ, their sins are REMOVED, NOT REMEMBERED, and hence they have only good things said of them. They have only a clean and white garment for the wedding, they are a bride clean and white to be presented to Christ, when He comes to marry them, when He sits upon the throne of His glory. The others, on His left hand, the goats, they have only bad things to remember them by. No good deeds are mentioned in Matthew 25. They go into the judgment seat, the throne of Jesus' glory, with only sins, and they are punished accordingly. Now, many of the sinners group, will shout out and say to Jesus that they had many fine righteous acts in their life-time, that they even called Jesus "Lord." See it in Matthew 7:21-23. They will proclaim they did this or that in Jesus' name, they will try to give forth many "works" to say they qualify to be in the Kingdom. But the BASICS were not there (covered in my study called "Saved by Grace") - and so ONLY the fact that they are still considered by the Lord to be workers of iniquity, or as the Greek really is, "lawlessness."
You have TWO categories - those that built upon the ROCK and those that built upon the SAND. Those that built upon the rock have no sand brought up to them. Those that built upon the sand have no rocks brought up to them. You are either dressed in clean fine and white linen of righteousness or you are in filthy rags of sin. There is no mixture! IT'S ALL OVER THE GOSPELS Jesus gave another parable at another time. It is recorded by Luke in chapter 19 of his Gospel. It starts in verse 11 and ends in at verse 27. A nobleman goes into a far country and gives out to his servants a certain number of pounds or dollars. He comes back eventually and wants to see what his servants did with what was given them to work with. Those that used the gift given to them were given more and were said to be good and faithful servants. Nothing bad is said of them. But the one who did nothing with what he had been freely given, was classified as "wicked" - no good things were said of him, and for those who just would not let the master reign over them, were classified as "enemies" and were to be slain - they were to live no longer! We have the parable of the fish, the wheat and the tares, the seed cast forth by the farmer, the reaping of the harvest by the angels at the end of the age. We have Jesus telling us over and over again this important truth. JUDGMENT - the day of showing forth to the universe the children of light and the children of darkness, will be just that - light or darkness! If you have walked in the light given you, if you have been called and you lived in that calling with the mind of Christ in you (Phil.2:5), you will come before Christ as part of the Bride of Christ. You will only be in white, clean linen. Only your light and righteousness will be seen and revealed to the universe - no sin - no unrighteousness - you may have done, will be mentioned or brought up in any specific way. But, if you denied your calling, if you practiced sin, lived a life with a mindset of not wanting God to reign over you - you will have none of your righteousness mentioned - you will only be shown to be unrighteous and still in sin. This is the simple and yes, wonderful (to the children of God that is) truth of your Bible. For the children of God there is no FEAR in judgment, there is no condemnation. We are free from the accusations of Satan the Devil. We shall be free from his accusations he may want to bring up about us in that day of judgment, when we shall stand before the seat of Christ as His Bride. We shall only be dressed in clean and white linen. OUR REWARDS ARE BEING JUDGED NOW Jesus said we shall be rewarded according to our WORKS! So there is a judgment that will VARY between the children of God. We shall not all have the same reward. You may remember David said in one of his psalms that he would rather be a "door-keeper" in the house of God than dwell with the kings of this earth. So, someone in the family of God will be door-keepers. But the important thing to remember is that THEY WILL BE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD, IN THE FAMILY OF GOD!! They will still be SAVED, and in the very FAMILY of God. And that my friends is MORE than you have probably every been shown. That mind-bending truth is all expounded upon in my study called "A Christian's Destiny." If you have not studied that study, PLEASE DO SO! You will be stunned at what the Father and Jesus are going to do with us humans. The apostle Paul was inspired to tell us about "judgment to rewards." It is found in his epistle to the Corinthians - his first epistle too them, chapter 3, starting in verse 11. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." It all begins and ends with Christ Jesus - He is the foundation to eternal life. Paul goes on to say that we build upon that foundation. We can build gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. We can all see the progressive decline downwards from gold to stubble. Paul says every man's work will be made manifest; for indeed the day will declare it - judgment day or reward day when we shall all appear before the throne of Christ. As we build on the foundation fiery and tough things will come along to determine our work, of what sort it is (gold or stubble). Notice verse 14, "If any man's work ABIDE which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a REWARD!" Paul is talking about building on the basic salvation in Christ FOR A REWARD - NOT to gain eternal life, but the reward we get when we enter eternal life. Verse 15 proves this. "If any man's work shall be BURNED, he shall SUFFER LOSS, but he himself shall be SAVED, even coming through the fire (the tests, trial, ordeals of life)." The issue here is NOT "being saved" but what our REWARD shall be when we are saved, when we inherit salvation, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, upon His coming to earth in glory, to establish and set up the Kingdom of God on earth. We are to build upon our salvation (that is a gift from God through grace and faith not of works). With what we are given (one talent, two talents, three talents etc.) we do something with it all - we produce certain fruits - we do certain works. Under the fiery tests of life we may bear up doing things very well (gold) or well, or not very well, or even very little (stubble), but we do SOMETHING (the person with one talent or pound, or dollar, went out and gained another talent or pound or dollar - not necessarily in the literal money way) with what we have been given. All through our life we are being judged, going through life's fiery ... whatever. At the end of it all, God judging us NOW (remember what we read in 1 Peter 4:17) determines our REWARD for work done - maybe gold, maybe silver, or maybe stubble, but we did do something so we do get a reward. Even though we may not have done a lot in life, maybe we could have done more works, and have received precious stones reward instead of a hay reward, we SHALL BE SAVED, we shall inherit the Kingdom of God. We may end up as a "door-keeper" in the House of God, but we WILL BE THERE! And that is FAR GREATER, WAY FAR GREATER, than dwelling in the house of a king on this earthly and physical habitat. GIVE ACCOUNT OF EVERY IDLE WORD Now Jesus did say that we will give account of our words, of our every idle word that comes from us. Are we to take Jesus' statement and figure from it that there will be this HUGE TV screen before the judgment seat of Christ, on which every word we have ever spoken will come up, and Jesus will point out to us (and the whole universe) all our idle words. Here we are again, back to this idea of all our sins and worthless words being shown to us and all the other saints and angelic beings. I do not think we are to take Jesus' words about our accountability for idle words, and understand it all with the above idea. We shall in a very real sense be judged now in all our works (and words from our mouth is one of our works) - God will take into account what comes out of our mouth in words from the tongue. James chapter 3 tells us about the importance of the tongue in our Christian life. I think if we get a reward of say "hay" (not literally of course), then we shall know that we did not possibly do as much good work as we maybe could have done. We may have been a sincere Christian, salvation - no question, and being saved - no question, but we were somewhat loose with our tongue at times, just not careful enough as to the words that came out of our mouth at times. We maybe did not take to heart the instructions James gave to us in his epistle concerning the tongue. We shall be SAVED - no question, but with a little more care with our words and tongue we may have received a reward of "wood" instead of "hay." Do you see then how we can be judged now, give account of every idle word, yet NOT have some reward ceremony on the sea of glass before Jesus' throne, that goes through all we have thought, said, done, practiced, be it good or be it bad. I speculate here. We get a reward of hay, we say to Jesus, "I thought I might have gotten a reward of at least wood. Where did I fail? What was it that kept me from getting wood?" Jesus may simply say, without going into any details, or pulling up the details on some TV screen, "You had too many idle words, you could have been more careful with your tongue." I think most of us would "get the picture" pretty quick, and not want Jesus to get into the nitty-gritty of amplifying His statement, to us or everyone around. THREE TYPES OF JUDGMENT The Church of God, its members, the individual saints, from all ages were (if now dead) and are (if still alive) JUDGED during their physical life. The truth of judgment must now begin at the house of God. Our sins are blotted out, God will not remember them. We are white as snow, white like wool. We shall not have any of our sins brought up to us per se when we stand before Christ. We shall wear only clean and white linen as His Bride. We shall receive our rewards according to our works. We shall know how well we did with what we were given when our reward is either gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble. I cannot see anything else about how God arrived at those rewards for His children having to be amplified. Surely the words "Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord" is all we need to hear. God's saints surely do not want or need to have the sins of saints blasted out in front of everyone. Surely it is enough to know in this physical life that we are sinners, falling short many times, missing the mark of holy righteousness, without it being driven home to us in some embarrassing open judgmental disclosure. THANK GOD He teaches no such open shame will be put on His children on that day of judgment rewards. That day for the saints will be their WEDDING DAY - a marriage to Christ Jesus. It will be a wonderful, happy, joyous, exhilarating day. We shall be PERFECTED in resurrection, as John said, "We shall be like Christ for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:1-3). We shall have no human nature only perfect holy nature, we shall not be angry or upset or jealous at others who received a silver reward when we got wood. There will be no vain "puffed out chests" and a "look at me all of you, I got a gold reward." There will be saints of humility, you will not be there if you can't be humble - see Isa.66:1-2. The saints will have had judgment rewards handed out and there will be only peace, joy, laughter, love, gentleness, kindness, and praises, at that marriage feast of the Lamb and His Bride. A SECOND JUDGMENT Many will not be in the first resurrection (Rev.20:4). They will rise in the WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT RESURRECTION, a thousand years after Jesus has been on this earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This will be the time for all people, children, and all who were not called by God in their life time to know and understand the truths of salvation through Christ. They also will be saved by grace through faith, and be rewarded and judged for reward according to how they relate to the "books" - the Bible books. So it will be the same for them concerning rewards as for us. How you work with what you have been given to work with, determines your reward. God knows all the facts and all the situations we live in and work in, the rewards are just and good and correct for us and so it will be for those who are in this second resurrection. I have written an in-depth study on this important judgment resurrection. It is on this Website, and is called "The White Throne Resurrection" or the the catagory of the FEASTS it is "The Last Great Feast Day." This great general resurrection is depicted by the LAST GREAT FEAST DAY, in the Festival Salvation plan that God has for all peoples from all ages. It is a wonderful Feast Day and you need to KNOW what it pictures for a HUGE part of mankind, if fact the majority of mankind. JUDGMENT TO DEATH The last verses of the last book of the Old Testament gives it to us with no punches pulled. "For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yes, and all that do (practice as a way of life) wickedness, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. but unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the Lord of hosts" Malachi 4:1-3. The Bible is full of verses that says the end result of those who will not repent of sins, and will not have the Lord reign over them, those who will reject the calling to salvation, will be that they shall DIE ... be BURNT UP, BE ASHES under the feet of the righteous. Those sinners will not live, ever again, they will be gone from the universe, forever! Those who deliberately and knowingly reject God's offer to salvation by grace through faith, those who will not have THE God as their Lord and Savior, will be destroyed by fire, as in an oven that burns them up into ashes. Not pleasant at all, the apostle Paul tells us about it in Hebrews 10:26-31. Jesus got at times pretty frustrated with some of the religious leaders of His day, and said, "...How shall you escape the damnation of hell" (Mat.23:33). The Greek word often simply translated as "hell" in the KJV translation is "gehena" and is connected to the trash heap of fire that burned outside of Jerusalem. It was the city land-fill for trash and rubbish, only it was a fire burning up the garbage and not a land-fill as we think of land-fills in our western world. The truth is that those who do not want salvation as God offers it, will be burnt up into ashes and be no more. The in- depth study of this you will find in other studies on this Website. Those willful sinners will be judged in the lifetime they are given to live on this earth. If they have been called, if God has indeed set His hand to call them to salvation, and they have rejected it, they will face (by being resurrected - Jesus said that ALL in the graves would one day be resurrected - John 5:25- 29) the punishment fitting for such - DEATH in the fires of gehena. By reading the Gospels you will find Jesus talking about the judgment of gehena - the judgment for sinners who will not repent. It is a fact and truth of the Bible that there is coming a condemnation day, a judgment to death, for the rebellious wicked. So, the judgments are complete. We have now come to the end of Revelation 20. Now the time has come for the NEW heavens and the NEW earth. The time has come for God the Father to dwell on the new earth with all His children. The holy city, heavenly Jerusalem will also come to earth, and all that we read about in Revelation chapters 21 and 22 will be a reality. Now even death is judged, and is cast away from the universe. Only light, truth, holiness, and righteousness, will remain. Judgment for all humans is no more. Judgment itself has been judged, it served its purpose on the human race, now those humans who did accept salvation are in the very family of God, and no judgment is needed on the God family. All is perfect and holy. .................. Written September 2007 |
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