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Topic: Judgment -
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becauseHElives
Advanced Member
Member # 87
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posted
Carol, lonlesol and other here reading… isn’t it interesting when Yeshua separates the sheep and the goats, it will be because of what they did and did not do!
Faith without works is truly dead and just as useless as a screen door on a submarine…
I am so glad Rich Mullins wrote that song…
![[hyper]](graemlins/hyper.gif) ![[clap2]](graemlins/clap2.gif) ![[dance]](graemlins/dance1.gif) ![[youpi]](graemlins/youpi.gif)
Matthew 7:15-20, Hebrews 6:9-10, James 2:14-26
It's about as useless as
A screen door on a submarine
Faith without works baby
It just ain't happenin'
One is your left hand
One is your right
It'll take two strong arms
To hold on tight
Some folks cut off their nose
Just to spite their face
I think you need some works to show
For your alleged faith
Well there's a difference you know
Between having faith
And playing make believe
One will make you grow
The other one just make you sleep
Talk about it (yeah)
But I really think you oughtta
Take a leap off of the ship
Before you claim to walk on water
Faith without works
Is like a song you can't sing (sing)
It's about as useless as
A screen door on a submarine
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Strive to enter in at the strait gate:for many, I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. ( Luke 13:24 )
Posts: 4578 | From: Southeast Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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becauseHElives
Advanced Member
Member # 87
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posted
Carol, lonlesol and other here reading… isn’t it interesting when Yeshua separates the sheep and the goats, it will be because of what they did and did not do!
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Strive to enter in at the strait gate:for many, I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. ( Luke 13:24 )
Posts: 4578 | From: Southeast Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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posted
Hi lonlesol...
I found more on this topic in one of my favorite books, Concise Theology
JUDGMENT SEAT
GOD WILL JUDGE ALL MANKIND
Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
MATTHEW 25:41
The certainty of final judgment forms the frame within which the New Testament message of saving grace is set. Paul in particular stresses this certainty, highlighting it to the sophisticated Athenians (Acts 17:30-31) and spelling it out in detail in the first section of Romans, the New Testament book that contains his fullest exposition of the gospel (Rom. 2:5-16). It is from “the coming wrath” on “the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed,” says Paul, that Jesus Christ saves us (1 Thess. 1:10; Rom. 2:5; cf. Rom. 5:9; Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6; John 3:36; Rev. 6:17; 19:15). Throughout Scripture, God’s indignation, anger, and fury, which are often spoken of, are judicial; these words always point to the holy Creator actively judging sin, just as wrath does here. The message of coming judgment for all mankind, with Jesus Christ completing the work of his mediatorial kingdom by acting as judge on his Father’s behalf, runs throughout the New Testament (Matt. 13:40-43; 25:41-46; John 5:22-30; Acts 10:42; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 9:27; 10:25-31; 12:23; 2 Pet. 3:7; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:11-15). When Christ comes again and history is completed, all humans of all ages will be raised for judgment and will take their place before Christ’s judgment seat. The event is unimaginable, no doubt, but human imagination is no measure of what a sovereign God can and will do.
At the judgment all will give account of themselves to God, and God through Christ “will give to each person according to what he has done” (Rom. 2:6; cf. Ps. 62:12; Matt. 16:27; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12). The regenerate, who as servants of Christ have learned to love righteousness and desire the glory of a holy heaven, will be acknowledged, and on the basis of Christ’s atonement and merit on their behalf they will be awarded that which they seek. The rest will receive a destiny commensurate with the godless way of life they have chosen, and that destiny will come to them on the basis of their own demerit (Rom. 2:6-11). How much they knew of the will of God will be the standard by which their demerit is assessed (Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 11:42-48; Rom. 2:12).
The judgment will demonstrate, and so finally vindicate, the perfect justice of God. In a world of sinners, in which God has “let all nations go their own way” (Acts 14:16), it is no wonder that evil is rampant and that doubts arise as to whether God, if sovereign, can be just, or, if just, can be sovereign. But for God to judge justly is his glory, and the Last Judgment will be his final self-vindication against the suspicion that he has ceased to care about righteousness (Ps. 50:16-21; Rev. 6:10; 16:5-7; 19:1-5).
In the case of those who profess to be Christ’s, review of their actual words and works (Matt. 12:36-37) will have the special point of uncovering the evidence that shows whether their profession is the fruit of an honest regenerate heart (Matt. 12:33-35) or merely the parrot-cry of a hypocritical religiosity (Matt. 7:21-23). Everything about everybody will be exposed on Judgment Day (1 Cor. 4:5), and each will receive from God according to what he or she really is. Those whose professed faith did not express itself in a new life-style, marked by hatred of sin and works of loving service to God and others, will be lost (Matt. 18:23-35; 25:34-46; James 2:14-26).
Fallen angels (demons) will be judged on the last day (Matt. 8:29; Jude 6), and the saints will be involved in the process (1 Cor. 6:3), though Scripture does not reveal their precise role.
Knowledge of future judgment is always a summons to present repentance. Only the penitent will be prepared for judgment when it comes.
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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lonlesol
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Member # 4511
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Ezekiel 4:6; Hebrews 9:22-24
In our last broadcast we studied the longest time prophecy in the Bible, stretching twenty-three hundred years down the corridors of time. The subject actually was centered in a vision of Daniel the prophet as recorded in Daniel 8 and 9. He saw nations in mortal combat; he saw the rise of a great antichrist power; and finally he heard two saints speaking to each other. One of them said, "Unto two thousand three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Now two things need to be clarified about that text, friends. When does the twenty-three hundred days begin, and what is the cleansing of the sanctuary?
In answering these questions, we must remember that in prophetic reckoning a day always represents a year. Ezekiel 4:6 makes it very clear. God said to the prophet, "I have appointed thee each day for a year." Now when did the twenty-three hundred year period begin? The angel said, "From the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem." That's the date. Now, friends, we find that's one of the surest dates of the Old Testament. In Ezra 7 we learned that it was given by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, in the seventh year of his reign. That year was an accurate historical event.
Now we're prepared to figure the 2300 years from this date to find out when it ends. A little arithmetic will reveal that this time period ends in 1844 in the fall. According to the prophecy this date was to mark the cleansing of the sanctuary. What was that sanctuary anyway? It was the tabernacle which served as a holy worship center for Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness. God had shown Moses the pattern for the structure by opening heaven for him to see the heavenly sanctuary. There were actually two of them, the earthly sanctuary which was made according to the heavenly pattern which Moses saw, and the heavenly sanctuary which he copied.
Generally, that structure had two compartments separated by a heavy curtain. Every day the priest went into the first, or holy apartment, to sprinkle blood of the sacrifices. This blood symbolically carried the sins of the people and constituted a record of their sins as it was sprinkled before the veil. They would come, confess their sins over the animal, slay the animal, and then the priest would catch the blood, take it in to sprinkle it before that veil. The sinner, then, having confessed his sins over the animal and killed it with his own hand, had a record made of that sin through the sprinkled blood. The lamb represented Jesus and the sinner was showing his faith in Christ who would come later to die for his sin. Day after day through the year as the people sinned, they came with their lambs to confess their sins. Day after day the priest would catch the blood and sprinkle it in the Holy Place of the sanctuary.
For a full year the record of their sins was made through that sprinkled blood, but once a year on the Day of Atonement there was a service called the Cleansing of the Sanctuary and that record was then blotted out. It was considered the very day of judgment because anyone was cut off on that day who had not confessed their sins sometime through the year before the close of that Day of Atonement. To this day it is a most solemn yearly observance of the Jewish people. On that day the high priest cast lots on two goats, one for the Lord and one for the scape goat. On the Lord's goat, representing Christ, he confessed all the sins of Israel, then killed the animal and carried the blood through the veil into the Most Holy Place. After sprinkling the blood on the mercy seat between the cherubims, he came out to put his hands on the scape goat's head. That service beyond the veil had made atonement for or cleansed away the sins of the people which had accumulated through the year. The scape goat represented Satan; the guilt he would have to share and all the sins of the people was finally rolled back on him for punishment.
Well, you say, what does all this have to do with our prophecy? Alright, remember that the sanctuary was to be cleansed after 2300 days or years. That period ended, as we have learned, in 1844, but there was no earthly sanctuary at that time, of course. It had been destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. and was never rebuilt. But don't forget that there were two sanctuaries, the one in heaven which served as a pattern and the earthly one which Moses had made from copying that heavenly sanctuary. And since there was no earthly sanctuary in 1844, this cleansing could only apply to the heavenly sanctuary.
Someone might say, "Well why should the things in heaven need any cleansing?" Well, it's a good question, friends, and it has a good Bible answer too. Let's notice something now in Hebrews 8:1, 2, "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Now notice when Jesus went back to heaven, friends, he went as our high priest right into that heavenly throne room or into that sanctuary above. He went as our intercessor. Notice how it was foreshadowed by the earthly type which Moses had built for the Jews. We read in Hebrews 9 from verse 2 and onward describing that earthly one which had been copied from the true sanctuary in heaven, "For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of his people: The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:"
Now, friends, this is merely repeating what we've said before describing how the priest went every day into the first compartment and only the high priest once a year into the most holy on the Day of Atonement. But notice that all of this was just a type. It said this signified actually the way into the holiest of all." Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, . . . which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, . . . . But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Hebrews 9:9-12. Oh, friends, this is a beautiful picture of that heavenly sanctuary, and how Jesus went there to be our high priest and took his own blood instead of the blood of animals as they did here in the earthly services.
Now we're prepared to read verses 22-24 of Hebrews 9. "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Now friends, that plainly says that the heavenly things did need cleansing but with better sacrifices than those used in the earthly, and that better sacrifice was the blood of Christ Himself.
But why did the heavenly need any cleansing at all? For the simple reason that the record of sin is there, just as the record had been in the earthly through the sprinkled blood. But where is the record of sin to be made in heaven? Notice Revelation 20:12. "And the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Yes, friends, you'll be judged according to the record of your life in the books of heaven and that examination will be made before Christ returns. In every court case there are two phases of judgment , the investigative and the executive. The investigative is when the evidence is considered and the executive is when the sentence is actually carried out. We are now led to the startling fact that the cleansing of that heavenly sanctuary began in 1844 at the end of the 2300 year prophecy. Ever since that time the investigative judgment has been going on in heaven. Sins will be blotted from the books and every case will be settled before Jesus comes again. Look at Revelation 22:11, 12 to confirm that. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. . . . And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Notice, that this decree goes forth just before Jesus' return. Every case is settled, having been determined out of the books.
Now here's the way Daniel describes that heavenly court scene, friends, and how it's all going to be done from the books. You and I will not be there in person when our judgment takes place because it must be decided before Jesus returns. After all, when He comes back, we've found that the righteous are going to be caught up and rewarded immediately. The wicked are going to be slain; so the judgment has to be determined before He comes. Now here's the way it's described in Daniel 7: 9, 10. "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and then thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened."
Here we see pictured the great judgment scene when the life record of every soul must be examined. The angels will be the witnesses. You'll not be there in person but the judgment takes place on the basis of the books. In verse 13 is brought to view the lawyer who'll be there to represent you if your sins have been blotted out. "Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him." What a picture this is, friends, and it's taking place now, according to prophecy.
Summarizing now briefly, when Jesus went back to heaven, it was to be our high priest in the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, presenting His own blood for our sins. But there was to come a time when He would enter the most holy place and begin the cleansing of the sanctuary or the work of judgment, that began in 1844. Now we live in the solemn time of that judgment. Soon every case will be settled forever and the edict will sound forth, "He that is unjust, let him remain; he that is holy, let him remain; and behold I come quickly." Listen to the solemn text in Revelation 20:15. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." As a result of that judgment your sins will be blotted out of the Book of Deeds or your name will be blotted out of the Book of Life. Won't you let Jesus be your advocate now so that He can represent you before the Father? Confess Him now as your Saviour and friend.
Posts: 478 | From: Quebec | Registered: Mar 2005
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lonlesol
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Member # 4511
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Daniel 8:13, 14
Daniel in the Old Testament. It has to do with the greatest and the most inevitable event in all the world's history, the great judgment day. Not a soul among us can escape the judgment. Rich and poor, small and great must all stand together before the judgment seat of Christ. In connection with this subject, we want to consider today the longest time prophecy in all the Scriptures, containing some amazing predictions about the future.
When Daniel received his vision of Chapter 8, he was a captive in the mighty city of Babylon. A few years earlier Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, had besieged the city of Jerusalem and carried away many of its young men as slaves or war captives. For several years Daniel had been a captive there in Babylon, but he was highly respected as one of the wisest men of the kingdom. As a Jew he was naturally concerned about the desolation of the Holy City, Jerusalem. He was especially anxious about the sanctuary because it had been left in ruins so that the services could no longer be conducted there. He yearned for the time when the temple could be rebuilt once again. Of course it had been told through the prophet Jeremiah that after 70 years the Jews would be able to go back and actually establish themselves again in their own city.
While he was thinking upon this subject, Daniel had a vision in which God revealed some of the events of the future. He was shown a ram with two great horns standing by the River Ulai. One horn was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. This ram pushed in all directions and gained mastery over all the other beasts. No one was able to stand before him. Then suddenly a he-goat came from the west with great speed and ran into the ram with great fury. The he-goat had a notable horn between his eyes, according to the description in the Bible, and in his anger he broke the horns of the ram and cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him. Daniel 8:8 tells us the next development; "Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven."
Now this was the first part of the vision of Daniel and he could not understand the meaning of it, of course. But God sent the angel Gabriel to explain what those things really meant. Daniel 8:20, 21 tells us in the words of the angel speaking to Daniel: "The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king." Now friends, here's a perfect example of how the Bible explains itself. We don't have to guess as to the identity of these two beasts or whom they symbolize. The angel Gabriel told Daniel just exactly who was represented by the two animals. From these words Daniel understood that Babylon would be overthrown by the Medo-Persians and that Greece would then come along and defeat Medo-Persia. The great horn of the goat represented Alexander, the first king of that nation. When he was young and strong Alexander died in a drunken debauch and his kingdom was divided among his four leading generals, represented in this vision by the four horns which came up afterward. We're not guessing at these things for they're all given to us clearly in the Bible itself.
Even though these events were of interest to Daniel, he was most interested in the second part of the vision as recorded in Daniel 8:13, 14: "Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Now anything that had to do with the sanctuary of Jerusalem was very close to the heart of the Hebrew prophet. The thought that the sanctuary would be established once more and that the Day of Atonement would be observed again among his people was a thrilling thought to Daniel. He waited for the angel Gabriel to explain that part of the vision to him but in verse 26 Daniel was told, "And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: (this referring to the twenty-three evenings and mornings) - wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days." In other words, the angel was not going to tell him the meaning of that part of the vision which had to do with the twenty-three hundred days, at the end of which the sanctuary was to be cleansed. When he realized that he would not be able to understand about this part of it and the cleansing of that sanctuary, Daniel became sick with disappointment. Verse 27 says, "And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it."
But Daniel did not give up the idea that it might be revealed to him because he began to pray in the next chapter, Chapter 9, confessing the sins of the people and asking God to give him light on that sanctuary question. Notice his words here, and by the way, the whole prayer is contained in that chapter, but in verse 17 we break right into the middle of the prayer. Here is what Daniel is saying, "Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake." Somehow this earnest prayer entered into the ears of God and He sent Gabriel once more to explain the rest of that vision to Daniel. Before he had finished his prayer, Gabriel appeared at his side and told him that he had come to give him understanding.
Notice how he brought Daniel's mind back to that earlier vision. He said, "Therefore understand the matter and consider the vision." Verse 23. So Daniel focused his mind once more upon the vision, and recalled the prophecies about that twenty-three hundred days. Gabriel said, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins." Verse 24. Now that word "determined" actually means in the Hebrew "cut off," so he said then that seventy weeks of that time of the twenty-three hundred days would be cut off and assigned to the Jewish people, to Daniel's own people. For what reason? "To make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to annoint the most Holy." In other words, it was a time of probation, assigned to the Jewish people to see what they would do with the Messiah when He would appear.
Now right at this point we should understand the principle of prophetic interpretation. In prophetic reckoning a day stands for a year. Let's read a text on that to be absolutely certain of our ground. In Ezekiel 4:6 God said to His prophet, "I have appointed thee each day for a year." Now this is not true in history or narrative or anything except in the prophecies of the Bible, a day stands for a year there; it always will. So this twenty-three hundred days, then, would actually represent twenty-three hundred years. And seventy weeks of this twenty-three hundred day period were to be assigned to the Jewish people, or to the Jewish nation. In that period they were to fill up their cup of iniquity by the rejection of the Messiah.
But now we must determine when the twenty-three hundred years began. Only then can we hope to understand the events during that period. In verse 25 we get the answer, "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks." Now here is the beginning date, friends, which coincides with the going forth of the commandment to restore Jerusalem. Can we find when that decree did go forth? Yes, the Bible makes it very clear and actually gives the words of the decree itself. The Persian king Artaxerxes sent out that decree in the year 457 B.C. You'll find that decree in Ezra 7:11-13. We'll read it: "Now this is the copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord and of his statutes to Israel. Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, . . . and at such a time, I make a decree that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee." Please notice the date right there beside the text, there's no date more fully established in all the Old Testament Scriptures than this, it's 457 B.C.
Now since this point is the beginning of the twenty-three hundred days or years, we can immediately cut off seventy weeks of that time for the Jewish period of probation. Now how much is seventy weeks, how many days? Seven times seventy is four hundred and ninety days, so that would be actually 490 years, a day for a year. So cutting off 490 years from the 2300 years beginning in 457, brings us down to the year 34 A.D., and in that year Stephen was stoned as a climax of the opposition of the Jews to the gospel of Christ. In that year Paul began his ministry to the Gentiles because the Jews had sealed their rejection of the Messiah.
Next, according to the prophecy, there would be a period of seven weeks and three score and two weeks from the beginning date until the appearance of the Messiah. So, if we count down 69 weeks beginning from 457, that's the point of beginning. If we begin there and count 69 weeks, which is actually, of course, 482 days or years, we are brought to the year 27 A.D. What happened in that year according to the prophecy? The Messiah was to appear! And sure enough, at that very time, in that very year, Jesus was baptized by John in the River Jordan. Now the word "Messiah" actually means "the anointed," and it was at His baptism that Jesus was anointed by the descent of the Holy Spirit. That event took place at a specific time according to the words of Scripture. In Mark 1:15 we read about John preaching and he said that "The time is fulfilled," showing that something should take place because of the fulfillment of a specified period; and that was the fulfillment of the prophecy that would bring one right down to the appearance of the Messiah. The Anointed One, the Messiah, did come in the baptism of Jesus in the year 27 A.D.
Now please notice that the 69 weeks or 483 years brings us down to 27 A.D., but that still leaves one week of time before the rejection of the Jews at the end of seventy weeks. In other words, we've got 69 weeks to the appearance of the Messiah, and 70 weeks would bring us to the end of the period of probation for the Jews; so during that 70th week something very important was to happen. According to verse 26, the Messiah was to be cut off, but not for Himself. Then verse 27 states, "In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." And in the exact center of that last week, friends, just 3 1/2 years from His baptism, Jesus was cut off and crucified, bringing an end to the sacrificial system. The veil in the temple was rent in twain to signify that there should be no more typical offerings. Jesus died in 31 A.D., leaving another 3 1/2 for the Jews to seal their rejection of the gospel. In 34 A.D. Paul turned to the Gentiles, and the full 70 weeks was completed. In Judgment - Part #2, we'll take up our study at this point and find out what happened in 1844, to fulfill the cleansing of the sanctuary. This is a fascinating subject, friends. Your eternal interests are involved in this subject.
Posts: 478 | From: Quebec | Registered: Mar 2005
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