The Judgments of God

RV194-02

The world today is being effectively manipulated by powerful political, economic, and religious forces in pursuit of a false peace and prosperity. World government is viewed as the means to world peace. Socialism is viewed as the means to universal prosperity, and the New Age religion is viewed as the basis for the personal evolving into godhood and equality. All efforts by the world controllers are based upon eliminating the authority of the Bible, and upon rejecting the kingship of Jesus Christ. The spirit of internationalism in our world today is rising to destroy the sovereign independence of nations. This is, in effect, preparing all of mankind, and especially the United States, for acceptance of the reign of the antichrist during the tribulation.

The United States, you should be aware, is in a national spiritual life-and-death struggle in the current presidential election. The results of this election will take the United States in one of two possible directions. One is that the United States can go on in the strength of its biblical Christian foundations right up to the time of the rapture, and then fall, after the Christians are gone, into the hands of the globalists, once the believers are no longer here to resist. The election can be decided in such a way that the United States will, in fact, in its current abandonment of its national anchor in biblical principles, simply collapse as a major power before the rapture arrives. Then, once the Christians are gone, it will definitely slide into oblivion.

God is a God of Judgment

However, the Bible is very clear on the subject that God is a God of judgment. For example, Hebrews 10:26-27 point this out to us: "For if we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains the sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries." That verse makes it very clear that God gives information for people to operate upon. And when they reject it, they receive His judgment.

Hebrews 10:30-31: "For we know Him who said, 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay.' And again, 'The Lord will judge His people.' It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God," and indeed it is. To fall into the hands of the living God in judgment is a terrifying thing, and never will it be more terrifying than by the judgments of God which will be poured out upon mankind during the tribulation.

In the gospel of John, this concept of judgment is narrowed down to the person of Christ himself. In John 5:20-23, Jesus said, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent Him." So all these people in the world today who reject Jesus Christ as the God-man and the Savior of mankind, yet who like to speak about God in whatever terms they call Him, are deluding themselves. They have no contact with God at all. As Jesus said in John 14:6, the only way you get to the Father is through Him.

The Bible indeed has a multitude of verses that very clearly stress and establish the fact that God is a God of judgment. He will judge us for our evil. In 1 Corinthians 4:5, the apostle Paul says, "Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness, and disclose the motives of men's heart. And then each man's praise will come to him from God." This verse stresses the fact that it is very hazardous for us, as human beings, to try to pass judgment on one another.

I get very tired of seeing Christians who have very confident opinions and declarations of something that they know that they can pass judgment on. And they have their facts all balled-up, and the foundations upon which they base their judgments are all distorted and wrong. One of the things that we cannot judge, and the Bible forbids us to judge, is the motivations of a person. You can't look inside, and see what is driving a person. The Bible very clearly tells us to judge a person on the basis of what they do and what they say. Now you are not misrepresenting. Now you can indeed judge that something is compatible with the integrity of God, and the Word of God or not. There's a big difference. The Word of God says that there is a judgment, and it is coming, but it is to be left in the hands of God.

Revelation 16:7 also reiterates this pattern of divine judgment: "And I heard the altar saying yes, 'O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.'" When God judges, it's a fair judgment.

We should never forget that God indeed has the power to execute His sovereign, righteous judgments. He is indeed the omnipotent one, and that's what makes His judgment so fearsome: He can carry them through. Revelation 18 says, "For this reason, in one day the plagues will come: pestilence; mourning; and, famine, and she will be burned up with fire, for the Lord God who judges her is strong." Here is a reference to the destruction of Babylon.

So, there is no doubt, if one is to take the Bible upon its face value statements, that God is a God who judges. People do not like the book of the Revelation. Some religious groups, preachers, and denominations simply reject the book of the Revelation completely. In many of those churches, where they supply Bibles in the pews, you could cut out the revelation, and they would never miss it. It is the one book they do not touch, because they do not believe the things that are so horrendous as those judgments which are described in that book would ever come to pass, and that a loving God would ever impose that upon mankind.

The Judgments of God

1. The Judgment of Sins at the Cross of Jesus Christ

   The first judgment we find in John 12:31. This deals with the judgment of the believer's sins at the cross of Jesus Christ: "Now the judgment is upon this world. Now the ruler of this world shall be cast out." There, the Lord declares that judgment has come upon this world. It has come in the form of the Son of God being sacrificed to pay the penalty of death, and the result of that has broken the back of Satan, the ruler of this world. Jesus Christ bore for the sin guilt of all mankind in His death upon the cross. For this reason, the believing sinner is justified before God.

   Justification

   Please remember that the word "justified" in the Bible is the same word in the Greek that is associated with the English word "righteous." Justification and righteousness come from the same basic Greek word. The word "justification" means that God has declared a person to be absolutely righteous. That means that you have imputed to you the absolute righteousness of God that cannot be secured in any way by human effort. That is what was stressed early on in the book of Romans. It was that which hit the reformer Martin Luther, who all of his life had been trying to make it with God on the basis of his efforts. Finally, when came across that verse in Romans 1:17: "In it (the righteousness of God), which is a righteousness from God, is revealed." And the thing he's referring to is the gospel that he has referred to in verse 16: "From faith to faith, as it is written. But the righteous man shall live by (or as the result of) faith." This Old Testament verse is also quoted in the book of Galatians, where it is made crystal clear that what the apostle is saying is that God's righteousness comes to a person as a result of his faith in the gospel message – the promise of God.

   Well, you can try to put yourself in Luther's place. You must you must imagine what a sense of relief overflowed him. He was so fearful of the judgment of God for his sins, and he had been trying by every human effort that the Catholic Church taught him, using the sacraments, and all of the penance that he did. And suddenly, he realized that it was just taking God at His word. What a sense of relief that must have been. Indeed, in that moment, that's what he did. He trusted God, and Martin Luther who, through all of his works achieved nothing, then in the twinkling of an eye, became permanently and forever a child of God.

   So, the believing sinner is justified. That means that he's declared absolutely righteous based on the fact of his trust in Christ, and he can never again be put in jeopardy of the lake of fire. His new birth is irreversible. John 5:24: "Truly, truly," Jesus says, "I say to you: he who hears My Word, and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life." Who sent Jesus Christ? The Creator God. What is the Word that Jesus brought? "Trust in Me? My death will pay for your sins, and I will take you into heaven."

   In 2 Corinthians 5:21, the apostle Paul clarifies this in a little more detail when he says, "He (God the Father) made Him (God the Son), who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf." Christ bore your sins: "That we might become the righteousness of God in Him." So, God has given you His righteousness.

   So, the first of the general judgments of God that the Bible deals with in considerable degree is the judgment of the believer's sins at the cross by Christ. That is the basis of our peace. And that judgment is passed, and it is forever secure.

2. The Believer's Self-Judgment

   The second general judgment in which god is engaged in dealing now with the believer is the self-judgment of the believer. How important this is! Please turn to 1 Corinthians 11:31. I remind you again that the Corinthian Christians were a sorry lot spiritually. They were very sinful, and they had a lot of problems. Their problems were so extensive that they were even attacking their teacher, the apostle Paul, and they needed to deal with their own sin, and that's why Paul here deals with the believer's self-judgment.

   In 1 Corinthians 11:31, Paul says, "But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged." If the believer confesses his sins to God the Father, he will be restored to temporal fellowship as per 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This confession to God the Father will only come when a Christian is ready to admit that he stepped out of line; when a Christian is ready to admit that the old sin nature got the best of him; and, that the sin nature drove him into an act that has fractured his walk with God. It could not fracture his eternal relationship with God, because, as the first judgment we looked at indicates, that has been settled. But there is this break of the inner circle of temporal fellowship.

   It is horrifying to me when i think about the fact that you could probably make a survey of the hundreds and hundreds of church members in all the churches in this city, and that you will find a minuscule amount of them (a bare minimum) who understand the principle of temporal fellowship, and how to stay in temporal fellowship, and the consequences of being out of temporal fellowship, and how to get back in when you have fallen out. They don't know a thing about that. Do you understand what that means? That means that Satan blinds believers to this particular doctrine, which often is resisted even in pretty good churches. They don't like this kind of concept. The result is that you have Christian people who are trivializing and wasting their lives. They never get on track with God. But they think they're doing great.

   Self-judgment avoids the chastening of God. That's the reason for it. In 1 Corinthians 11:32, Paul goes on and says, "But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world." The reason God brings discipline into your life, as His child, is to wake you up, and for you to admit what you have done; to cease and desist the evil; and not to do it again, so that you don't have to come under the kind of judgments that come upon unbelievers. Once you are out of that circle of temporal fellowship, then God has to deal with you as if you were just another one of the people of the world's system.

   You may add to this Hebrews 12:5-6: "And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons (speaking here to believers). My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives." That's easy to understand. It's a simple fact of life that a parent who loves his child will restrain him, and discipline him from evil conduct. In fact, the language is very clear and very strong. He whips him and scourges him, because he is in the family group. He is God's Son. Therefore, when you find yourself under some pressure, and under some discipline from God, don't regard it lightly, but consider it His signal to you to get something straightened out. You will immediately be happy. You will immediately be in stride with the things that God has for you in the way of blessing. Things will shape up. ...

   Here it says, "Faint not" (into self-pity). When you are reproved by Him, you will suffer the consequences of chastening. To refuse to exercise self-judgment and confession becomes even worse because it now sets you on a path to reversionism. Immediately, when a Christian steps out of the will of god, and breaks the rules of God, he has broken temporal fellowship. But you're not in reversionism. You're a sinning child. But if you grit your teeth, and you hang in there, and you refuse to stop and to change your ways, then gradually, being out of fellowship degenerates into reversionism where you completely lose your spiritual orientation. Then you are open to becoming a major spiritual casualty. We have to judge ourselves on a moment-by-moment basis.

   Back in 1 Corinthians 11:30, the consequences of moving into reversionism are spelled out. If you refuse to judge, the consequences are this: "For this reason, many among you." And there were lots of people in this Corinthian congregation who were hard-necked, stiff-neck resistant, and who would not admit they're evil: "For this reason, many of you Corinthians are weak" (that is, you're emotionally distraught), and you're sick (you have physical ailments), and also a number of you sleep" (which is the Christian term meaning that you have died, before your time). This is the consequence of failure to exercise self-judgment. You will get emotionally disoriented and distraught. So, there are psychological pressures, and you'll become physically deteriorated (ill). And if you persist, you move into the sin unto death, and God takes you home to heaven.

3. The Judgment of the Believer's Works

   The third judgment is found in 2 Corinthians 5-10. This is called the judgment of the believer's works. If a Christian does not judge himself, then he's always out of the center of the will of God. And the consequence of that is that when it comes time to judge what he has done with his life, he finds that everything he did with his life was useless in terms of evaluation by God: "For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." That verse is telling us that there are two kinds of things a Christian could do. He can do divine good works, which are the product of the Holy Spirit in him, guided by the Word of God; or, he can produce human good works which are bad, and they are simply the product of the sin nature within him. Very often they look very good. When you are out of the inner circle of temporal fellowship, the only thing you can produce is human good works. It's all bad. Only when you're in that inner circle, where God the Holy Spirit is in control, can you produce the kind of words for which God will reward you.

   Therefore, here we have the warning that one of the judgments that we Christians will face is what we have done with our lives relative to investing those things in God's service. Certainly, this is something we should never take lightly, and we should be careful not to excuse ourselves from doing what we can do. Obviously, God is not going to ask you to serve Him in a way that you cannot do.

   I carry a great personal burden because no one ever asks me to sing a solo on Sunday morning. They think I can't do it, and they're right. So, I have no qualms of conscience. I'd like to be up there, because I love show biz. I'd like to get up there and sing. But I don't have any qualms of conscience about not doing that. But I have a lot of qualms of conscience were I not to do the things that I can do, that are needed by the work of God at any particular point in time.

   A great deal of what can be done in the work of God, in any local ministry, is not done because Christians are preoccupied with other things that they want to do, or that they're going to get out of the way first, and then get around to it. And some of them spend their whole lives getting things out of the way so that they can get around to really serving God with some capacity they have; with some time capacity that they have; with some skill that they have; with some finances that they have; or, whatever. They're waiting and waiting. Obviously, God is not going to ask you to do something, and judge you for something that you did not do, which you could not do. But I'll guarantee you that, for what we can do, for that He will judge us. And it begins with whatever your particular spiritual abilities are, and whatever your particular spiritual gift is.

   The Gift of Ministering

   I remind you that one of the most serious gifts we all have to consider is the gift of ministering. Whatever else we have in the way of spiritual ability, I suspect that we all have the gift of ministering. And the gift of ministering is the gift of service that I think sanctifies those natural abilities. There is no spiritual gift of singing solos, but there is the gift of ministering. And the people who have the ability to do that sanctify that gift by placing it in God's service. You're just born with it. There are other people who have skills of various kinds. You're particularly adept at it. God has just naturally enabled you to do that. And you place a divine sanctification upon that gift when you exercise that natural ability in the gift of ministering.

   That's what this judgment is all about. It is not a judgment for your good intentions. It is the judgment of what you did with what you could do – with what you had available to you. The consequences will be clear to you. I guarantee you that it's going to be clear to everybody else standing at the Judgment Seat of Christ around you. Your sins are never going to be paraded on a giant TV screen in heaven for you to account for. That is done with. That is forgotten. That is gone. And we can all breathe a sigh of relief for that.

   However, what we did with the investment of our lives: how much was divine good works; and, how much was human good works, that's not going to be a secret. The rewards that will be received, or the lack of rewards that will not be received, will be evident. This is taught to us in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15: "For no man can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The foundation of anybody's life as a Christian is Christ in us – the hope of glory. Now then, God, having laid this foundation, and we, having accepted it through faith:

   Good and Bad

   "Now if any man builds upon the foundation of your salvation with gold, silver, and precious stone, hay, wood, and straw, each man's work will become evident." Here we have divided two kinds of materials that represent divine good works and human good works. Divine good works are categorized as gold, silver, precious stones. They have an inherent value, and a lasting capacity. On the other hand, wood, hay, and straw are trivial, and are transient, and do not last, especially when they are brought under the fire of God's judgment: "Each man's work will be evident, for the day will show it." What day? The day of Christ is what the bible calls it. This is a technical term. What does the day of Christ? It is the day of the Judgment Seat of Christ:

   Revealed by Fire

   "Because it is to be revealed with fire." Here's the analogy of fire being applied to these materials. You know what's going to happen to the gold when fire hits it: it will get more refined. You'll know what's going to happen to the silver when fire hits: it is going to become more purified. The precious stones will not be affected by the fire because of their hardness and capacity to resist. By the same token, you know what's going to happen to the wood, hay, and straw when God's flamethrower hits those.

   What's he talking about? He's talking about God's evaluation. Throughout the Bible, God's judgment is compared to fire. This fire is going to be applied to our lives (to what we have done): "And the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work." Boy, am I glad that word is in there? It's not going to test the quantity, but the quality; that is, what kind of work you did. It's not going to be a competition of who did the most, or who knocked himself out the most. It was the quality of what you did. If God calls you to a greater and greater quantity of divine good works, you will be blessed and prospered all the more.

   So, verse 14 says, "If any man's work, which he has built upon it (the foundation of Christ – His salvation) remains, he shall receive a reward." You can't escape it. You can't say, "No, that's a symbolic word." You're going to get a reward. What is a reward? It is something that you have earned. You deserve it. This is why we know that this is not talking about salvation. Some people misinterpret this verse, and apply it to salvation. Salvation is not a reward, because you can't work for salvation.

   Verse 15: "If any men's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss." Loss of what? Loss of rewards: "But he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire." He is still going to be saved even under the judgment of God. Why? Because the judgment of God sees him with Christ's righteousness. The first judgment that we looked at tonight has covered his sins.

   All of this takes place in heaven for the church after the rapture.

4. The Judgment of Gentiles

   The fourth judgment of God is the judgment of individual gentiles at the Second Coming of Christ. We have that in Matthew 25:32. The church has been raptured. At that moment, everybody on the face of the earth is lost. But during the seven-year tribulation period, the gospel message is proclaimed, in part, by the 144,000 Jewish evangelists; in part, by people who begin reading the Bible; and, in part, no doubt by people who listen to Bible study tapes left behind. But in one way or another, immediately people start getting born-again in the tribulation era. They will not be part of the body of Christ, but by the end of the tribulation, a lot of people will be saved. They will be back on Old Testament ground in their relationship to God.

   Matthew 25:32 tells us that, when Jesus returns, He will come into the picture. He will come back to this earth. Then He will gather all of the gentiles before Him: "And all nations will be gathered before Him." In the Greek Bible, the word "nations" is "ethne." The word "ethne" means "gentiles." So, do not think that God is going to put the United States here and decide whether the United States goes into the Millennial Kingdom, or into the lake of fire: "And all nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them." I can tell you that in the English Bible, the reference here in the word "them" indicates that it is individuals who are being referred to. That is because the Greek word "ethne" is a neutral word. Therefore, when you use a personal pronoun like "them," it has to be in the same case. It should be neuter. But for obvious reasons, God the Holy Spirit inserted a masculine word here. He used the pronoun in the masculine form, which tells us that He's not speaking about nations as a group, but individuals within it. The Bible is so clear in the original manuscripts.

   "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them (individuals) one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." The gentile nations, as individuals, will be divided into saved and lost categories. In this passage, they are called the sheep for those who are saved; and, goats for those who are lost. The regeneration of the saved was the result of the working of God during the tribulation. The saved then are going to enter the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ, while Matthew 25:41 tells us that the gentiles who are lost will be sent into the lake of fire.

   "Then He will say to those on his left, depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." This takes place after the seven-year tribulation period at the Second Coming of Christ to this earth. This is the divine judgment upon individual gentiles who are alive at the end of the tribulation.

5. The Judgment of the Jews

   The fifth general judgment of God is the judgment of the Jews at the Second Coming of Christ. This is to be found in Ezekiel 20:37: "And I shall make you pass under the rod." Here, the Prophet is looking forward down the corridors of time, and he sees all the Jews gathered from among the gentile nations. The tribulation is over, and now Jesus Christ is judging the Jewish people. It says here symbolically, "He brings them under the rod." He tests them: "And I shall bring you into the bond of the covenant." What He is referring to "under the rod" is that those Jews who, at the end of the tribulation, have not trusted in Christ as Savior, are going to be put to death. "Under the rod" is a term for being put to death. The Jews who have rejected Christ will not survive to go into the millennium. There will be a lot of Jews who were born-again during the tribulation. They will go into the millennium.

   For this reason, when Christ finishes with judging the gentiles on the one hand, and the Jews on the other hand, you can see that now, as the tribulation began with everybody unsaved, the millennium begins with everybody born-again. Every human being on the face of the earth will be born-again. Where will those unbelievers come that are there at the end of 1,000 years to gang up on Christ once more? They will come from the children who were born to these Jews and gentiles who go into the Millennial Kingdom.

6. The Judgment of the Demon Angels

   The next general judgment is the judgment of the demon angels. This is the judgment that God has reserved for those angels in Genesis 6 who intermarried with human women, and produced that hybrid race of half-humans / half-demons, who were all wiped out in the flood. 2 Peter 2:4 refers to this: "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment." He is referring to God's particular placing of these angels in the compartment of Hades called Tartarus, to keep them under reserve so that they could not again engage in sexual activity with human women. This probably also includes the judgment of the chief angel Satan, as well as all of his angels. It's specifically here warning about those in Noah's day, as you see in verse 5; that is, the angels who were judged in that particular context.

   Nevertheless, the wider judgment is going to indeed include Satan and the angels that rebelled with him. Revelation 20:10: "And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also. And they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever." At the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, the antichrist and his false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire. 1,000 years later, they're alive, and they continue in their punishment in agony. You don't get burned up in the lake of fire. At that point, Satan is sent in there to join them, because hell was originally created for the devil and his angels.

   So, this is the judgment of the demonic world. Matthew 25:41 reminds us that the lake of fire was not in the plan of God originally. It came as the result of sin: "He will say to those on his left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

   One of the things that interests us as Christians is that when these demons come up for their judgment at this particular point in time, at the end of the millennium, we Christians are part of the jury. 1 Corinthians 6:3 refers to this, where Paul says, "Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more matters of this life? Christians stop squabbling with one another, even where you have legal problems between one another. Settle them among yourselves." Do not stand before a judge in the secular world for Christian against Christian. Why? Well, because you are going to judge angels. You're going to be in that exalted position. You are going to judge the demon angels, and send them into the lake of fire. When you can sit upon such a high bench as that, you can't settle squabbles between yourselves? This takes place at the end of the millennium.

7. The Judgment of the Great White Throne

   Judgment number seven is found in Revelation 20:11: the judgment of the great white throne. This, in the timeline, is also after the millennium has been completed. The 1,000 years of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ on this earth are over: "And I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat upon it (Jesus Christ), from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them." This is the judgment of all unsaved people of all human history from the time of Adam to the very end up to this point in time. It covers to the end of the millennium. At the end of millennium, the last human being will have been conceived and born in the human race. At that point in time, all unbelievers stand before the great white throne. This is a terrible place to be.

   Verse 12 says, "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds." These include all the people who thought that their good deeds were going to make it with God. These include all the Catholics who are laying their hopes upon their performance of the sacramental rituals; all the poor people that they feed; all the homeless people that they housed; and, all the cold people whom they give clothing to. Those who have counted on these worthy acts of mercy for their salvation are going to find that God has more recorded in the books. And God is going to say, "Yes, you have done this and this and this. You didn't do it under My direction. They're all human good works. But you do have that. Let's look over here in the Lamb's book of life. Ah, yes. Alphabetically, here's where your name was, and you see that it has been erased. It's been wiped out. You came into the human race, and your name was recorded in the book of life. And when you died without Christ, your name was erased. And that's the final copy of the names that are called the Lamb's book of life."

   So, at this point, all of the Hitlers and all of the Stalins and all of the nice, sophisticated people of our day, and throughout all history, stand before that throne, and they find they are doomed. A great deal of ignorance can be reflected upon a person's knowledge of the Word of God when they talk in glowing terms about the great white throne.

   The first hymn book we had at Berean Church, from a denomination group, had a song in it, the first line of which, "Oh, I want to stand someday at the great white throne." Well, maybe the people in that denomination needed to sing that song. That may be where they're going to end up. But those were bad lyrics, I'll tell you, folks. That is the one place you never want to stand – before the great white throne.

   The Mormons are very sloppy about the Bible. The early Mormon pioneers came into Zion National Park. Some of you have been there on that road that goes through the valley. Suddenly, you come to this majestic cliff. Its towers are up there, and it's all white. One of the Mormons looked up there and he said, "There's God's great white throne." And to this day, that's the name of the mountain: "The Great White Throne." That Mormon didn't know that he was not honoring God in the way he meant to, because he wasn't thinking about the judgment of God. The problem he had was probably that his founder, Joseph Smith, is going to be up there indeed before the great white throne in heaven.

   There is no way that you can pass this final test. The records are there, and there is going to be an enormous mass of humanity standing there in total silence. They can't say a thing. There is no arguing and no debating. There are the fact. You do not have absolute righteousness. You're doomed.

   So, the judgment is passed by Jesus Christ. Revelation 20:15: "And if anyone." Or like the King James Version used to put it: "In whosoever's name was not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." So, you had those two occurrences of that great word "whosoever:" the "whosoever" of John 3:16; and, the "whosoever" here of Revelation 20:15: the one to eternal life; and, the other to eternal death and separation from the God of the universe.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1992

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