The Day of Judgment

 

COPYRIGHT ©2019 - James M. Frye

 

All scripture quotations are taken from the Authorized King James Bible. Any deviations are not intentional. All underlines, bold and words within brackets are the author's.

 

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The Bible teaches that there will be a single day in which all who have ever lived (both the saved and the unsaved) will stand before God in judgement. The Bible refers to this day as, The Day of Judgment”. If you have been taught otherwise (that there will be two separate judgments: "the Bema seat" for believers, followed by "the Great White Throne” judgment for unbelievers 1000 years later), you have been deceived. See the Biblical Proof below.

Acts 17:30-31 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Now, if I told you that there was “a cat” on top of the mailbox, when you looked out the window to see, would you be expecting to see one cat, or two? One, right? What if your boss told you that you could have “a day” off, would you be able to take one day off or two days? Again, your boss would be telling you that you could take one day off. “A day” means one day. And when the Bible tells us that God appointed “a day” to judge the entire world, He means a single day.

Matthew 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

Notice that it does not say “the days of judgment” as in two or more separate judgments, but says “The Day of Judgment” as in one day of judgment. You will not find “judgment days” or “days of judgment” anywhere in the Bible. What we find is “The day of Judgment”.

Believers will be judged on this one “Day of Judgment”.

1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Unbelievers will be judged on this same “Day of Judgment”.

2 Peter 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

Scripture teaches that both believers and unbelievers will be judged on the same day and at the same judgment. Will you accept what God says on the matter, or will you reject what God says and continue to be deceived by the doctrines of men?

Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 46

31 When 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:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Again, the above passage is clear. Both believers and unbelievers will be judged on the same day and at the same judgment. Unfortunately, many have been taught that the above passage speaks of yet a “third” judgment day. Sigh. Scripture is clear, there is but one day of judgment and both believers and unbelievers will be judged at the same judgment. If you look at many older statements of faith you will see that this is what Christians used to believe. But unfortunately, most in our day are being deceived. Here is an example for the London Baptist confession of faith of 1689.

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Chapter 32: Of the Last Judgment

1. God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus Christ; to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father; in which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon the earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.

2. The end of God's appointing this day, is for the manifestation of the glory of his mercy, in the eternal salvation of the elect; and of his justice, in the eternal damnation of the reprobate, who are wicked and disobedient; for then shall the righteous go into everlasting life, and receive that fulness of joy and glory with everlasting rewards, in the presence of the Lord; but the wicked, who know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast aside into everlasting torments, and punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.

3. As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin, and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity, so will he have the day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come, and may ever be prepared to say, Come Lord Jesus; come quickly. Amen.

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Many people have been taught that the book of Revelation supposedly teaches two judgments, one for believers and another for unbelievers separated by 1000 years. But, the teaching of the rest of the New Testament makes this absolutely impossible. One of the most basic rules of Biblical interpretation is that all unclear passages must always be interpreted in light of clear passages, and may never interpreted to contradict them. Everyone agrees with this principle, but many do not actually follow it.

Now, let me ask you. Which would be the unclear passages, these straight forward statements from the New Testament which I have shared above, or an obscure passage from the book of Revelation which is filled with much symbolism? We simply cannot take an unclear passage from the book of Revelation and use it explain away or ignore all of the above passages. No, we are to believe what these clear passages say and base our beliefs upon them. Then we may not interpret anything in unclear passages (like Revelation) to contradict them. We instead must interpret Revelation in light of them and in a way that does not contradict them. After all, God does not disagree with himself.

For more on this, please read the article at the link below.

http://www.seekingfortruth.com/articles/endtimeerror.htm