“for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” (John 12:47, NKJV)
With the new understanding we’ve reached in our discussion of timelines, the so-called thousand year reign of peace is no longer in the far future. Usually Rev. 20:8-9 is used to argue that Satan is released from his prison after the thousand year reign of peace is over, and that there is still a bit of time before the nations are seduced, Gog and Magog gathered for war, etc, but we’ve now dealt with all the crazy arguments around this perspective, in the previous teachings.
After the thousand year reign of peace people traditionally expect the white throne judgment, a term that is partially found in Rev. 20:11-15: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
In the teaching of Day 1319-1921 we briefly spoke about the concept of white throne judgment, but promised that we would look at it later in more detail.
We will thus now spend a while trying to come to an understanding of what the Word of God means when it speaks about this (last) judgment.
It is very noticeable that most public tirades by unbelievers are fuelled by how problematic they find the judgment of God, which is often paired with an absolute disdain for a God who has prepared an eternal hell for people who do not believe in Him. The un-Biblical turn or burn theology has caused a lot of damage to Christendom and the good news of Jesus Christ over the ages, especially since there is such a shortsighted understanding of what God means by this concept. Jesus’s direct words in John 12:47 are absolutely clear: “And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.”
Contrary to popular belief, there is not a general judgment for all people. This popular belief derives from all kinds of heathen beliefs, as well as from other religions, but not from the Bible. According to the Word of God there is not a single, future event in which all people will appear before the throne of God. An event as depicted in the image above, in other words merely a fantasy – will never happen exactly as is portrayed.
The general perception and false way of thinking that Jesus will physically return to earth, and that He will sit on a great white throne and that He will have every sinner appear before his throne one by one, in the midst of immense disconcerting manifestations of nature: earthquakes, graves that open and the dead who arise, mountains that tear open, as well as a multitude of events in a similarly evil vein. The terrified sinners will then be confronted with every single sin or transgression they’ve ever been guilty of, and be judged, after which they will be taken up into the unending darkness of their punishment. The holy will join from heaven for this cosmic event, witnesses of the terrifying fate of the unbelievers, after which they return to the glorious streets of gold in heaven, without ever having to think about the eternal fate of the judged again.
This distorted idea grew from a too literal interpretation of a few portions of Scripture in which symbolism is prominent – these are not literal references, but symbolic.
Interestingly enough Scripture does not primarily speak about judgment. In the past there have been particular judgments, today there are judgments, and in the future there will also be judgments of God. Along with this: judgements are also not only negative. Therefore Girdlestone’s Old Testament Synonyms defines it as follows: “The words judgment and condemnation signify two very different things …” The Hebrew word for judgment (mishpâṭ)
strictly speaking means verdict, which can obviously be favourable or not-favourable. This is also the case in the New Testament, according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: “Often in the New Testament, ethically, for (1) “to decide,” “give a verdict,” “declare an opinion” (Greek krı́nō); (2) “to investigate,” “scrutinize” (Greek anakrı́nō); (3) “to discriminate,” “distinguish” (Greek diakrı́nō).”
A good example of a positive outcome around judgement is David’s prayer in Ps. 7:8 (KJV) – “The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.”
The word judgement however sometimes merely implies the act of discernment, for instance the role of a judge in a beauty contest, and presupposes a very specific set of adjudication criteria.
Yet it is undeniable that Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the God of Righteousness, has this particular mandate on the basis of his characteristic nature of righteousness: “’Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’” (Jer. 23:5-6).
That judgment was felled in the past is undeniable, and is the best example of judgment that took place in the garden of Eden. Not only did the federal head of humanity, Adam, stand in the dock, but IN HIM the entire humanity did too. The judgement in this case was damning – guilty based on disobedience. Man’s disobedience had them “surely die” (Gen. 2:17). [Please take note – this is spelled out: “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”] That day is then today if you do not listen to his voice, and harden your heart in disobedience. Try to look past this as an eternal death; see it as a death today, falling away from the eternity of today. This did indeed bring about a judgement, namely that man had since tasted Rom. 1:18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”
The first white throne judgement or day of judgement was when God determined that “in Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22). Humanity is still serving this sentence. Today we see this sentence being served in every coffin and funeral procession, every illness and epidemic, every ache and pain, in the thick of entropy, that everything moves from a state of order to a state of disorder. All who are born are delivered onto the judgement of this spiritual principle, which Paul in Rom. 8:2 calls “the law of sin and death”. Earlier in that letter he writes, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12). Judgement has affected all people.
“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ …” (2 Cor. 2:14a)! Look at the immensely important truth that Rom. 5:18 presents as antidote: “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” Verse 15 states it clearly: “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.” The Message paraphrases it beautifully: “Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.” (Rom 5:18-19). In these verses one clearly see man’s specific punishment, and his specific acquittal.
Apart from this judgement there have been, since this fatal incident, also various other judgments. The most well-known is perhaps the judgment effectively destroying humanity (excluding eight people – 2 Pet. 2:5) during the flood, in the time of Noah. In Gen. 6:5-7 it is spelled out as follows: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’”
Sodom and Gomorrah is another judgement that befell a particular group of people (Gen. 18:20-21; 19:14). Jude (1:7) notes that they are “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire”. This is an immensely important given that we will discuss in the next teaching.
God also condemned ancient Babylon, largely because of the fact that they kept the house of Judah in captivity, continued to worship their idol Marduk, among other things. In 539 BC their kingdom was violently taken over by Persia and Media (Jer. 51:36; Isa. 14:3-6,17; Dan. 5:1-4). The same went for Edom (Jer. 25:17-31). But over Judah and Jerusalem judgement was also felled, based on their compromised heart: “Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.” (Ezek. 5:8, RV).
And then a last example of judgment was the destruction of the temple in 70AC, that “great and awesome day of the Lord” of which Joel (2:31) prophesied, and that is discussed in detail in the prophetic word of Matt. 24 (the entire chapter). Those words were fulfilled in the ears of those listening, as Jesus had indeed warned them: “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.” (verse 34). One generation (= 40 years) after this had been spoken (30AC), the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem took place in 70AC.
- Selah: Do you fear the judgment of God? Why/why not?
- Read: 2 Kings 7-15.
- Memorise: 2 Kings 9:7 (what would this synchronicity mean to you?)
