The Second Coming of Christ is closely associated in the New Testament not only with the resurrection of the dead but also with the judgment of the world. This week we take note of the end time event of final judgment.
The understanding that God will judge the world is rooted in the Old Testament. For example Psalm 9:7–8a affirms, “But the Lord shall endure forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness.” Likewise in the New Testament, in a sweeping declaration and without distinguishing between believers and nonbelievers, Hebrews 9:27 plainly states: “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”
Judgment is a divine appointment awaiting every person. Jesus linked His future return to both the resurrection of the dead and final judgment. He declared: “[A]ll who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28b–29). In His analogy of sheep and goats being separated by a shepherd, Jesus spoke in Matthew 25 about a coming time when judgment will occur, calling it a time when “all nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them one from another” (v. 32).
Loss of importance
Often discussions about future judgment focus on the timing or placement of judgment, or even how many different judgments will be on God’s agenda. This is not the intent of this installment of Theology 101. When eternity has overtaken time, issues of timing and sequence lose their importance. Eternity by its very nature will not have clocks and calendars creating concerns about what happens when. Rather than attempting to discover from various biblical passages just where God’s judgment will fit into His plan for the future, our concern is better focused on the reality and nature of future judgment.
Several questions immediately arise. Is there to be a final judgment passed on nations as a whole? Did Jesus refer to all nations only to emphasize that final judgment will be universal? That not even a chosen nation will be exempt, but the judgment will be on every individual in every nation with no one omitted? Will final judgment be a general judgment that involves believers and nonbelievers standing before God at the same time?
Divine agenda
In response to such questions, we might focus on the fact of future judgment as part of the divine agenda, rather than trying to figure out the timing or sequence of the various items on God’s judgment agenda. However, Jesus did not make the kind of distinctions our questions might raise.
We recall that He did tell the disciples that He had much more to disclose but they were not able to receive it at the time. So He alerted them that the coming of the Holy Spirit would result in giving them further divine revelation (John 16:12–15). Thus when we read on in the Bible we come across passages that speak with further definition and distinctions about final judgment. For example a distinction seems to be made in other biblical passages between judgment for believers and nonbelievers. In light of this further amplification on final judgment, our focus next week will be on the judgment of Christians and the following week on the judgment of nonbelievers.
Share with others: