What Happens In Judgment?
Those who object to the doctrine of the ultimate salvation of all usually insist that those who hold that doctrine do not believe that sin will be punished. That is a false criticism. Believers in Reconciliation are sure that “every transgression and disobedience receives a just recompense of reward” (Hebrews 2:2). They are certain that judgment for sin is inescapable. But they also believe that there are more judgments than folks ordinarily have recognized. Some judgments are past, some are continuously present, and some are future. It is misleading to speak of “The Judgment,” as though it were only one event coming sometime in the future.
It may help us to list a few of the judgments of God upon sin. First of all, there was the judgment pronounced upon Adam in the Garden of Eden. That judgment has been operating ever since, and will continue to operate until the consummation. Then there was the special judgment of the Flood, and the special judgment on Sodom. There have been judgments upon Israel, such as the Captivity, and the Dispersion. One terrible judgment known as Jacob’s Trouble is still to fall upon Israel (Jer. 30:7).
The average church member has the idea that there is only one judgment at the great white throne; and that there everyone, good and bad, Christian and non-Christian, will meet and be separated like sheep and goats. That is not Biblical teaching.
The Bible teaches three judgments to be faced by every Christian. One is past; one is continuously present; and one is future. In one we are judged as sinners; in one we are judged as sons; and in one we are judged as servants.
1. Judged As Sinners
This judgment is past for every Christian. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). But He did that 1900 years ago—and I do not know that you and I can do anything to add to its effectiveness. Do you? “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin” (2 Cor.5:21). “There is therefore now no condemnation (sin-judgment) to them who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Why is there no condemnation now? Because He bore it then, over 1900 years ago. So we do not have to bear it now. We ought to thank Him that He has already borne it for us.
2. Judged As Sons
Through Christ God accepts us as His children. “For we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). “Beloved, now are we the sons of God” (1 John 3:2). He gives us the standing of sons. But He desires also that we become sons in state, or condition, as well. He wants His sons to be son-like. And in order to make us so, He brings us into judgment, son-judgment. The prodigal son was not son-like, but he was still a son. So you, Christian friend, if you are in Christ you have been born into God’s family, and so are His son. And God wants His sons to be sonlike. If we are not, He judges us.
“For if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:-31,32). That is, when we do wrong, if we recognize it, and condemn it in ourselves, and confess it to God, that is the end of it. For all God wants is for us to recognize and forsake all evil. But if we do not recognize it, or fail to confess it, then God has to take us in hand and judge us Himself. That is, He “chastises” us—which word comes from a root word meaning chaste or pure. God wants us to be chaste.
Here is a clear statement of that truth from the Bible. “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son [this is son-judgment], despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure: but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby” (Heb.12:5-11). This quotation shows both the nature and purpose of our son-judgment. But such judgment is going on here and now whenever we need it, “that we might be partakers of His holiness.”
3. Judged As Servants
This is the judgment that is still future. It is a reward for works, not a judgment on sin. Salvation is from sin, reward is for service. If the average Christian understood that the future reward is to be based on the service he renders, well, there wouldn’t be so many of us sitting around twiddling our thumbs.
“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels and then He shall reward every man according to his works” (Matt. 16:27). “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work [not his sin] of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Cor. 3:11-15). The future judgment is on service.
Then there is the Judgment of the Nations (Matt. 25:-31-46), which will be a judgment of the living at the Second Coming of Christ. At the close of the Millennium will occur the Great White Throne Judgment, a judgment upon those who were not raised at the second Coming of Christ but were resurrected after the thousand years are past (Rev. 20:12). The most important Judgment of all, however, was the judgment of sin at the cross of Christ.
Every sin ever committed receives a just recompense of reward. There is no escape. But it is a mistake to believe that every sin will be judged at one and the same time in the future. For instance, Jeremiah pronounced the curse of God upon Israel thus: “For Mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from My face, neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes. And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double” (Jer. 16:17,18). The part of Isaiah’s prophecy that looks beyond the Captivity begins as follows: “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isa. 40:1,2). Now if her iniquity is pardoned, and she has received double for her sin, do you think God will demand punishment again for that sin? No, God is not like that.
Nevertheless, every sin that has not already been punished, as those of Israel mentioned above were punished, or sins that have not been forgiven through Christ, will be punished. Some will receive their just recompense in the crises connected with the millennial age, and some in the great day of judging that follows the Millennium. These will be “eonian punishment,” which is mistakenly translated in our ordinary versions as “everlasting punishment.” It is not “everlasting punishment,” but more accurately, “eonian chastening.”
One hesitates to use the word “hell” in speaking of the judgments. In the King James Version, the Hebrew sheol, and the Greek hades, gehenna, and tartarus, were all translated “hell,” while popular usage makes the lake of fire mean “hell” as well. Any careful student of the Bible is aware of these things. So that, no matter how carefully one tries to explain, he is sure to be misunderstood if he uses the world “hell.” This is because, to the ordinary person, “hell” means a lake of fire and brimstone in which the damned (condemned) will suffer forever. Incidentally, there is no Greek word in the New Testament that can properly be translated “damned” or “damnation.”
While feeding hogs in the “Far Country,” the prodigal came to himself. It was the lack of food that changed him. His body was made for food, even as his heart was made for friendship and love, but he was destitute. “No man gave unto him.” Then he remembered: “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” (Luke 15:17). He was suffering the results of his own selfishness, and lust, and profligacy. His body was in agony without the sustenance it was created for. Rags, and filth, and the stench of his surroundings were only incidental to these greater facts: (1) his body was without the food for which it was created, and (2) his heart was without the friendship and love for which it was created. So it ought to be clear to thinking people that the reality of judgment will be separation from God’s fellowship and the consequent recognition of God’s wrath and condemnation, and not the incidentals of place or circumstances. To be “without God in the world” is life’s ultimate in desolation and despair.
Of course, no one knows just what judgment will be like, nor will one know until one enters into it. Still, we ought to have a few trustworthy ideas, based on the teachings of the Bible about the subject, and about the nature of God:
(1) Judgment will bring punishment, deserved punishment; but it will not be meaningless torture. The Riverside Daily Press for November 23, 1940, had an Associated Press report from San Francisco as follows: “‘A Father’s Curse,’ was the legacy left by Dennis Donohue III, fifty-four, member of a well known family here, to his two daughters by a former wife, in a will filed for probate in Superior Court:
“‘And to my two daughters, Frances Marie and Denise Victoria Donohue,’ he wrote in his own hand, ‘by virtue of their unfilial attitude toward a doting father, and because they have repeatedly thwarted my efforts to see them, I leave the sum of one dollar each and a father’s curse. May their respective lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness and poignant sorrow. May their deaths be soon and of a lingering, malign, and torturous nature. May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the damned for eternity.ʼ”
Of course, such an attitude is not that of a true father; it is only that of a fiend. But what may not be clear to all is that, in this respect, he is a perfect example of the God of popular theology. Because his children were unfilial he consigns them to the torment of “hell fire” for ever! But that is being a true son of the “orthodox God.” We have all been unfilial children of the Heavenly Father and only a handful of us have repented. Therefore this “God of orthodoxy” consigns all the rest of us to unending torment! No more terrible insult was ever given to the God of grace. He does bring judgment upon sinners, but never meaningless torture.
(2) Judgment will be just. “The Lord will count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there” (Ps. 87:6). That is, God will remember the heredity and environment of each individual. We read in Hebrews 2:2 that “every transgression and disobedience receives a just recompense of reward.” Judgment will be just.
(3) In order to be just, judgment will be graded to suit the offense. In Luke 12:42-48, Jesus taught us that the servant “which knew His Lord’s will and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.” This one fact about judgment rules out both Eternal Torment and Extermination, for neither of them, by their very nature, can be graded.
(4) All of God’s judgments will be purposive; they will accomplish something. “For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:9). “Lord, in trouble have they visited Thee, they poured out a prayer when Thy chastening was upon them” (Isa. 26:16). “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:9,10).
(5) Judgment will destroy enmity and rebellion. “For He must reign till He hath put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:25). And when enmity and rebellion are destroyed what is to hinder faith and trust?
The pity about this whole matter is that many folks who claim to be missionary and evangelistic in attitude, and who insist that they want to see the wicked saved, nevertheless tend to anger if they are told that God is going to do just that for all the wicked. They are not willing for God to save the lost ultimately, unless He does it according to their theological scheme. They are like Jonah, who was angry because God spared the wicked city of Nineveh. Search your own heart and see if you really want the wicked saved. Such a self-searching may do you good.