Bible Basics Study 4.6 — The Judgment

4.6 The Judgment

Bible teaching concerning the judgment is one of the basic principles of the one faith, which must be clearly understood before baptism (Acts 24:25; Heb. 6:2). Frequently the Scriptures speak of "the day of judgment" (e.g. 2 Pet. 2:9; 3:7; 1 John 4:17; Jude 6), a time when those who have been given the knowledge of God will receive their reward. All these must "stand before the judgment seat of Christ" (Rom. 14:10); we "appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:10) to receive a recompense for our lives in a bodily form.

Daniel's visions concerning Christ's second coming, included one of this judgment seat in the form of a throne (Dan. 7:9-14). The parables help to flesh out the details somewhat. That of the talents likens it to the return of a master, who calls his servants and assesses how well they have used the money which he had left them (Matt. 25:14-29). The parable of the fishermen likens the call of the gospel to a fishing net, gathering all kinds of people; the men then sat down (cp. the judgment sitting) and divided the good fish from the bad (Matt. 13:47-49). The interpretation is clear: "At the end of the world the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just".

From what we have seen so far, it is fair to assume that after the Lord's return and the resurrection, there will be a gathering together of all who have been called to the Gospel to a certain place at a specific time, when they will meet Christ. An account will have to be given by them, and he will indicate whether or not they are acceptable to receive the reward of entering the Kingdom. It is only at this point that the righteous receive their reward. All this is brought together by the parable of the sheep and goats: "The Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory (David's throne in Jerusalem, Luke 1:32,33): and before him shall be gathered all nations (i.e.people from all nations, cp. Matt. 28:19): and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you" (Matt. 25:31-34).

Inheriting the Kingdom of God, receiving the promises to Abraham concerning it, is the reward of the righteous. Yet this will only be after the judgment, which will be at Christ's return. It is therefore impossible to receive the promised reward of an immortalized body before Christ's return; we therefore have to conclude that from the time of death until the resurrection, the believer has no conscious existence at all, seeing that it is impossible to exist in any form without having a body.

It is a repeated Biblical principle that when Christ returns, then the reward will be given — and not before:

"When the chief Shepherd (Jesus) shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory" (1 Pet. 5:4 cp. 1:13).

"Jesus Christ...shall judge the quick (living) and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom...a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day" (2 Tim. 4:1,8).

At Messiah's return in the last days, "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth (cp. Gen. 3:19) shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame" (Dan. 12:2).

When Christ comes in judgment, those "in the graves...shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:25-29).

"I (Jesus) come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Rev. 22:12). We do not go to heaven to get the reward — Christ brings it from heaven to us.

Jesus bringing our reward with him implies that it has been prepared for us in heaven, but will be brought to us on the earth at the second coming; our "inheritance" of the land promised to Abraham is in this sense "reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" of Christ's coming (1 Peter 1:4,5).

Appreciating this enables us to correctly interpret a much misunderstood passage in John 14:2,3: "I (Jesus) go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you (cp. the reward "reserved in heaven"), I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also". Jesus says elsewhere that he will come again to give us our rewards (Rev. 22:12), and we have seen that these will be given at his judgment seat. He will reign on David's throne in Jerusalem "for ever" (Luke 1:32,33). He will spend eternity here on earth, and where he will be — in God's Kingdom on earth — there we will also be. His promise to "receive you unto myself" can therefore be read as a description of our being accepted by him at the judgment. The Greek phrase, "receive you unto myself", also occurs in Matt. 1:20 concerning Joseph "taking unto himself" Mary as his wife. It therefore does not necessarily refer to physical movement towards Jesus.

As the reward will only be given at the judgment on Christ's return, it follows that the righteous and wicked go to the same place when they die, i.e. the grave. There is no differentiation made between them in their deaths. The following is proof positive for this:

Jonathan was righteous but Saul wicked, yet "in their death they were not divided" (2 Sam. 1:23).

Saul, Jonathan and Samuel all went to the same place at death (1 Sam. 28:19).

Righteous Abraham was "gathered to his people" , or ancestors, on death; they were idolaters (Gen. 25:8; Josh. 24:2).

The spiritually wise and foolish experience the same death (Ecc. 2:15,16).

All this is in sharp contrast to the claims of popular 'Christianity'. Their teaching that the righteous immediately go to heaven at death destroys the need for a resurrection and judgment. Yet we have seen that these are vital events in God's plan of salvation, and therefore in the Gospel message. The popular idea suggests that one righteous person dies and is rewarded by going to heaven, to be followed the next day, the next month, the next year, by others. This is in sharp contrast to the Bible's teaching that all the righteous will be rewarded together, at the same time:

The sheep are divided from the goats at the judgment, one by one. Once the judgment has finished, Christ will say to all the sheep assembled on his right hand,

"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you" (Matt. 25:34). Thus all the sheep inherit the Kingdom at the same time (cp. 1 Cor. 15:52).

At "the harvest" of Christ's return and judgment, all those who have laboured in the Gospel will "rejoice together" (John 4:35,36 cp. Matt. 13:39).

Rev. 11:18 defines "the time of the dead, that they should be judged" as the time when God will "give reward unto Thy servants...the saints...them that fear Thy name" — i.e. all believers together.

Hebrews 11 is a chapter listing many of the righteous men of the Old Testament. Verse 13 comments: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises" made to Abraham about salvation through entering God's Kingdom (Heb. 11:8-12). It follows that at their death, these men did not, one by one, go off to heaven to receive a reward. The reason for this is given in vs. 39,40: They "received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect". The delay in granting their promised reward was because it was God's plan that all the faithful should "be made perfect" together, at the same moment. This will be at the judgment, at Christ's return.