Judgment remains one of the most misunderstood subjects in the Bible, with most thinking of it in terms of condemnation and damnation. They assume today is the only day of salvation and final judgment from God is determined solely by what happens in this life.The Bible, however, reveals something far different.
Jesus Christ stated: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6), but Christianity in its various forms represents only approximately 32 percent of the earth’s population and, in past ages, the vast majority of the earth’s inhabitants never heard of Jesus Christ or practiced Christianity. If you have to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” to be saved (Acts 16:31), how could that be fair to billions who never heard of Him through no fault of their own?
God the Father must open people’s minds to truly accept and follow His Son: “…no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father” (John 6:44 and 65). This means it’s not possible for someone to decide on his or her own to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ. When Jesus related the parable of the sower and the seed to a large crowd, He told His disciples in private, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that ‘seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand….” (Mark 4:11-12).
Only those God the Father individually calls in this age fully understand the truth, yet there is absolutely no unfairness with God (Romans 9:14). In due time He will not deny anyone the opportunity to be offered salvation. As 1 Timothy 2:4 says, God “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth,” and 2 Peter 3:9 states, “The Lord is… not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
During this present age, beginning with the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God is allowing human beings free will to experiment with every conceivable way of life they believe will bring happiness and prosperity. Then, when He does offer all people spiritual salvation in the age to come, they will finally realize their humanly designed approaches bring only suffering, spiritual emptiness and death (Proverbs 14:12). This experience will enable them to more readily turn their hearts towards their Creator and follow His way of life, which He has designed for their benefit.
Although God has allowed the vast majority of humanity to be spiritually blind at this time (John 12:37-40), He is now calling a small number of people to become His disciples, and commit themselves to Christ, accepting His sacrifice for their sins and dedicating their lives to following Him. Then, at Christ’s second coming they will serve with Him as resurrected spirit beings in God’s earthly Kingdom for 1,000 years, during a time called the Millennium (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 20:4-6) when people will dwell in peace and righteousness, and “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9; 29:18-19; 32:3-4).
A future second resurrection to judgment will occur just after the Millennium (Revelation 20:5, 11-12), when the billions who have lived and died never having had the opportunity to know Jesus Christ, or follow God’s way of life, will be resurrected to physical life and be given God’s Holy Spirit, enabling their minds and hearts to be opened to the truth of the Bible (Acts 2:17). God inspired Ezekiel to prophesy about this time: “I will give you a new heart and….will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). The Israelites of past ages and the people of all other nations will then be resurrected (Ezekiel 37:1-14)and given their first chance to learn God’s way of life and follow Him.
These marvelous events are sometimes referred to as the Great White Throne Judgment. In a vision, the Apostle John described this future age in the book of Revelation: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away … .And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened [evidently the books of the Bible now opened to their understanding]. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books” (Revelation 20:11-12)—that is, an evaluation period over the course of a new physical lifetime, not immediate sentencing to condemnation.
This will not be a second chance for salvation, but the first opportunity for these people to really understand the truth of God and live by it. There may be a stubborn few who will not repent and turn from sin even after God has given them every opportunity, but the Bible indicates the majority of those who have ever lived will gladly accept their opportunity for salvation. Even then, however, the permanent penalty will not be everlasting punishment in the fires of hell. The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and after being burned up in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14), those who insist on rejecting God’s way of life will simply cease to exist. (Be sure to read our article “What Is Hell?” in the next issue of Bible Insights Weekly.)
For now, in this age, God is calling only a few people to become His disciples and preparing them to be with Him as resurrected spirit beings in God’s coming Kingdom.They are privileged to be made aware of God’s plan of salvation in advance of the vast majority of mankind, and if they lead their lives in obedience to God’s way of life, will be in the first resurrection as the Apostle Peter assured committed Christians in the Church of God in this age: “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-11).
This majestic event occurs at the time of the first resurrection when Christ returns to planet earth (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54). In the meantime, the Church, those who are called by God and have been given His Holy Spirit, is going through a period of judgment—which means a time of evaluation. As the apostle Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15:22-23, God accomplishes His plan in stages: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order.”
The first resurrection represents the firstfruits of God’s salvation who have been called and had their minds opened to God’s way of life through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Judgment for them occurs in this life. But a much larger group, representing the greater part of all who have ever lived, will be offered salvation after the 1,000 year millennium.
