For fifty years I had some vague ideas of what judgment and heaven and hell would to be like. It was based on my learning experiences from preachers and teachers and my own Bible studies. In recent years I have come to realize that my picture of judgment has been restricted because I had not been listening to what the scriptures were saying. Because of my beliefs about the subject, I had been reading in things that were not there and ignoring some things that were there. After years of ignoring what some scriptures were saying, I have decided to take a new look at what the future holds, regarding judgment and beyond, by listening to all scripture that I can find that addresses the issue. In this introduction I will give a summary of what is in my book. If you want to see more, read the book.
Following, I will try to show how some of our Christian beliefs about judgment and the hereafter are not supported by scripture. I will also present some possible alternatives that could be scriptural. Read what I have written but your real duty will be to listen to the word of God and believe Him. Let's listen to Jesus describe judgment.
Jesus tells how He will come in glory and judge the world:
Matthew 25
31 "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on His right, `Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Jesus will tell those on the right they are heirs to the kingdom that has been prepared for them because they did good deeds for Him. They gave Him food when He was hungry, water when He was thirsty, etc. He will explain how they did them to Him when they did them to, “one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them”. He will then tell those on the left how they are condemned because they did not do those works of love for His brothers. He will judge the nations and reward them based on their works of love for God’s elect.
What about faith in Jesus? Why does Jesus not mention faith? The scriptures tell us repeatedly about how we are justified by our faith in Jesus, not by our works. Some other scriptures, however, do mention people being judged based on their deeds (Ezekiel 24:14 and Revelation 20:12-13 are two). He does not mention faith when He tells the righteous on the right why they will receive the kingdom. They will receive it because of works of love. Where is faith included in judgment?
I had pictured every person who will ever live being selected for one side or the other, the saved on the right and the damned on the left. We know that the saved will be saved by faith. Is Jesus really saying that? If He is, we should be able to see it confirmed in other scripture. We need to look a little deeper into the scriptures to find the answer to that question.
We have just seen what Jesus said about how He will judge the nations on that day when He comes in glory. Other scriptures mention that day and what will take place when He comes. What else is mentioned about that day? One thing has to do with how that day will begin. If we back up one chapter in Matthew, we can listen to Jesus speak of how the day will begin.
A picture of how the day will begin:
Matthew 24
30 "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
This is how the day will begin when Jesus comes in glory. It will begin with the sign of the Son of Man appearing in the sky. It will begin at different times of the day on this earth (depending on time zone) but it will be the beginning of a new day. All will see Him coming on the clouds of the sky.
Jesus will send forth His angels to gather together His elect from the four winds; from one end of the sky to the other. In Mark He said, “from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven” (chapter 13). No matter where they have been scattered, they will be found and brought to Jesus. His elect are really His brothers, so He will be gathering together His brothers.
This is one of those scriptures that I had not paid much attention to. It sounds like Jesus will be gathering together His brothers from among the nations. Why would Jesus gather together His brothers from among the nations and then have them brought before Him and judged with the nations? He will judge the nations based on how they have treated His brothers.
If He will judge the nations based on how they treated His brothers, why not keep His brothers with Him as He judges the nations. Is it possible that He will be doing exactly that? Is it possible that the mental picture I had of what would be taking place on that day was wrong? Just where will His brothers be when He will be judging the nations? Why, also, is Jesus not saying anything about faith?
We will begin our study with these basic questions and search the scriptures for answers. We will search knowing that all scripture is true and consistent with other scripture. As we read more scripture about judgment and the world to come, more questions will come up. We will see some possible answers being presented but some things may remain unanswered. The true answers must be consistent with all scripture.
All scripture is Jesus speaking. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). He will later say how the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (verse 14). If Jesus is the Word of God from the beginning, then all scripture is Jesus speaking, and that includes the Old Testament scriptures. Nothing can change what Jesus said about Judgment Day in Matthew, chapter 25, but other scripture might help us understand what Jesus is really saying.
There are other scriptures that caused problems with my previous picture of judgment. One place is found in John, chapter 5. In that chapter Jesus spoke to the Jewish crowd saying, “Truly, truly, 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 has passed out of death into life”. He will then say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live”. The hour had come for some to hear Jesus and believe.
Jesus told those Jews that if they believed Him, they have eternal life. He also tells them that believers do not come into judgment. Having a better idea of what will be happening on Judgment Day is a part of our goal. If Jesus says that the ones who believe have passed out of death, into life, that means they were dead before they believed. He is telling the crowd before Him that the unbelievers among them were still dead but any believers were alive. Those unbelievers standing before Jesus were very much alive in the flesh. Was He not telling them they were spiritually dead? He is telling us that the unbelieving world is dead but if we change and truly believe in Him, we have eternal life.
Is that like Adam being told that he would die on the day that he ate of that forbidden fruit? Jesus is the Word from the beginning, but Adam did not believe the Word, meaning, he did not believe Jesus, and he disobeyed and died. Adam died, spiritually, the day he ate and man has been spiritually dead ever since. The only way for man to live again would be through God’s grace and His gift to man. God would provide the redemption price necessary to let man regain eternal life with God. That only happens through faith in Jesus. Jesus paid the price and, for those who would believe in Him, God promises to give them back the life that Adam lost.
Jesus is telling us that if we will believe in Him, we will regain what had been lost. When Jesus told them that the hour had come when the dead will hear His voice and the ones who hear will live, He is obviously saying that true hearing means to believe what is being said. As Jesus said, the one who hears Him and believes God “has eternal life”.
It is possible to hear and yet, not hear. Adam heard His word but did not really believe and it brought death. We must hear the voice of Jesus if we want to be brought out of death and into life. Only those in the crowd who heard and believed would regain that life.
A few verses later (in John, chapter 5), He will say, “an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment”. These are scriptures that I spent little time on in the past because of the conflict that I thought was being caused by the wording. Is He saying that believers are the ones that will have done those good deeds? We know that some unbelievers also do good deeds. If He is speaking of believers, how can it be true that believers will not come into judgment and be among the nations being judged on that day? Will they be raised to life while others will be raised to judgment?
Paul tells us how we will all be judged. He wrote, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10)? What about that place in Romans, chapter 14, that says, “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” and “each one of us will give an account of himself to God”. Those scriptures were written to the church. Paul said that "we" must all appear there and "we" will all be before the judgment seat of God. He was including himself. All will be judged based on their deeds and that includes the elect of God. There appears to be a conflict between scriptures and a conflict between what some of the scriptures are saying and my previous beliefs about judgment.
We are looking at the day when Jesus will come in glory and judge the nations. Was Paul speaking of that day in 1 Thessalonians? In chapter three, Paul wrote to encourage them to endure their afflictions and he ended by asking the Lord to cause them to increase in love for each other and for all people, “so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints”.
He says that Jesus will come with all His saints. What did he mean when he said Jesus would return with His saints? He answered that question in the next chapter. In chapter 4 Paul continues to speak of the coming of Jesus and how He will descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God.
Paul tells how those who had fallen asleep will not be left behind, saying, “God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus”. The saints who will be coming back with Him are the ones who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Will not their spirits be coming back to receive their resurrected bodies? He then tells us that when Jesus descends from heaven, “the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”. It sounds like Paul is speaking of the same day that Jesus spoke of in Matthew, chapter 24. If it is the same day, the elect will be gathered to Jesus before He sits in judgment of the nations.
If it should be true, as some have said, that the, “caught up”, described by Paul, will really happen many years before Judgment Day, the same thing would apply. We read where the saints will be caught up “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”. Paul then added something to that statement. He said, “and so we shall always be with the Lord”. Whether judgment will happen only a few minutes or hours later or hundreds of years later, the same thing is true. The saints will have been caught up before the nations are judged. If they are “caught up” and will ascend to meet Jesus to always be with Him, they will always be with Him. They would not be removed from Him to be judged when the nations are judged. They would be with Him at the throne on that day.
Jesus will have gathered His elect (His brothers) from among the nations and some time after that He will judge the nations. If that is true, He will have His brothers with Him as He judges the nations based on how they treated His brothers. When Jesus speaks of works of love being done for, “these brothers of mine”, will He word it that way because they will be with Him at the throne as He judges the nations? If believers have been gathered to Jesus and will not be with the nations being judged, that would be consistent with scripture saying that believers have eternal life and will not come into judgment (John 5:24). There seems to be a conflict. We can only reconcile the apparent conflict by searching the scriptures.
Jesus said of the one who overcomes, “I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Revelation 3:21). Only believers overcome (1 John 5:4-5). We can only overcome by faith in Christ. If we overcome, somewhere in time, or at the end of time, we will sit with Him on His throne.
Will we be with Him at His throne as He judges the nations? If we will be with Him as He judges the nations, will we be involved in that judgment? Jesus told the apostles that they would be involved in that judgment. He said that, in the regeneration, when He sits on His throne, they, “also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). The regeneration will happen when bodies are resurrected and living bodies are changed. That is the day when Jesus will judge the world. When He sits on His throne, the apostles will also sit on thrones, judging Israel . Jesus is the chief judge but the apostles will be judging with Him.
The apostles will be judging with Him but will not His other elect be there at the throne, also? Will the other brothers of Jesus be sitting in judgment with Him? Will they be judging the Gentile nations as the apostles judge Israel ? Was Paul speaking of that in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6? Paul was addressing some of the problems in the church at Corinth and one of them can be seen in that chapter. They were going into outside courts of law (before unbelievers) with lawsuits against one another. He criticized them and told them they should take care of their differences within the church. He told them, “do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life”?
The angels who sinned will be judged on that last day (Jude 1:6). Paul said that Christians will judge them. He also said that Christians will judge the world. If the saints will judge the world and if they will also judge angels, it should happen as Jesus is sitting on His throne in judgment of the nations. Will the saints be judging those who had either treated them well or treated them badly?
How can that be true if we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ? Even Peter spoke of his being judged. Peter made that statement, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God” (1 Peter 4:17).
When Peter said it was time for judgment to begin with “us”, he included himself. Remember, he is one of the twelve who will be judging the twelve tribes of Israel on that last day (in the regeneration). Peter said that he will be judged but Jesus also said that he will sit on a throne and judge with Him. If so, Peter must be judged before the nations are judged. That seems to be what Peter is saying. He says that judgment will begin with the household of God first. That means judgment of unbelievers will come after Jesus has judged His own.
It was nearly two thousand years ago that Peter made that statement about it being time for judgment to begin with the household of God. The saints are the household of God and they are the ones that will judge the world. If he meant exactly what he said, then it appears that there are two different judgments, one for the judges and one for the nations and it also appears that judgment of the judges began back then. How could judgment of Christians have begun then?
Judges must be qualified to judge before they can sit in judgment. If the saints will sit in judgment and judge the world, they will be called before Jesus and judged for their faithfulness before they are assigned as judges. It sounds like Jesus may judge His servants first, based on their faithful service and then He and His brothers would judge the world based on their works of love (their deeds). The parables of Jesus repeatedly tell us how the Master will judge his servants based on how faithful they were in their service to Him.
When we read of Jesus coming in glory and sitting on His throne to judge the nations (Matthew, chapter 25), He had just finished giving the parables of the ten virgins and of the talents. The parable of the talents teaches us how He will judge His servants. In that parable the master’s slaves were entrusted with his possessions and they will be called to give an account for what they do with them. Each of the slaves who gained were praised and he told them, “You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master”. They were judged based on faithfulness to Him in doing their assigned duty. For the slave that did nothing, Jesus said, “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. Faithful service was the key. Those who are faithful will become rulers over many things.
Jesus gave a similar parable of the minas (Luke, chapter 19). The master was going away on a trip to another country, where he was to be given a kingdom and then return. Before he went, he called ten of his slaves in and gave each slave one mina to do business with while he was gone. Jesus tells how he judged his slaves when he returned. One by one they are called in. The one who gained ten minas was praised and told, “Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities”. The one who gained five was told the same thing and was put in authority over five cities. The one who did nothing with his mina was condemned and what he had was taken from him. It appears that those who will have done more in their service will be judged as having been more faithful and will be permitted to sit in greater positions of authority.
After he had passed judgment on his slaves, he passed judgment on his enemies. His enemies were the ones who did not want him as their king. They were citizens of that land and they had previously sent a delegation to request that he not be made king. He was made king in spite of their objections. After judging his slaves, the king said, “But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence”. We are seeing separate judgments, one for the Master’s servants and another for those who refuse to accept Him as Lord. The unbelieving nations never accepted Jesus as Lord. They did not want Him to reign over them.
After giving that parable lesson of the talents, Jesus spoke of judging the nations. It sounds like the Lord’s servants will be judged first. If so, the judges will be selected based on faithful service and that includes doing the deeds of love that He has commanded. Those who believe in the Master will do their duty. It sounds like the nations will then be judged based on their deeds of love for the master’s slaves.
We can see when Jesus will judge His unfaithful servants that are still living and serving when He returns. We read of His coming on the clouds of the sky, in Matthew, chapter 24. After He described His coming, He told a parable about slaves who were placed in charge of the master’s house. Regarding the “faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household”, he will be blessed and put in charge of all the master’s possessions.
For the evil slave who served unfaithfully and mistreated his fellow slaves, He will judge the unfaithful slave and, “will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. When He gave a similar lesson in Luke, chapter 12, He said of the unfaithful slave, “assign him a place with the unbelievers”. He is passing judgment on His servants, not the unbelieving nations. If the nations before Jesus in judgment are unbelievers, it appears possible that the unfaithful servants may be placed with them because they were not true believers. It is more likely that the unfaithful servants will have already been cast into hell before the nations are judged. We may be seeing that in another parable.
Jesus spoke of how He will judge His servants in the parable of the tares (Matthew, chapter 13). An enemy had sown tare seed in a man's wheat field. His servants reported to him that tares were growing among the wheat. The master told his servants that the tares were not to be removed until harvest time. At harvest time the tares were to be gathered and burned before the wheat was harvested. Jesus said that at the end of the age, "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth". He is speaking of the wicked ones who are living among the righteous in the kingdom, not unbelievers out in the world. Jesus is telling us how He will judge His servants. The angels will remove the wicked from among the righteous and will throw them into the fire, "Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father". It appears that He will be removing the wicked from out of His kingdom before He judges the nations.
That could explain judgment of those servants who are still living when Jesus returns but what about those who had fallen asleep before His return? Remember, Paul said they will be returning with Jesus to receive their resurrected bodies. They would have been judged previously if they will be coming back with Him. Will they be judged when their work is completed? Peter said, “it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God”. It sounds like the time had come back then for the saints who had passed from this life.
When He comes, all who have died will come forth from the tomb but only the elect will ascend to meet Jesus before judgment. Are the elect judged and separated out from among the other departed when their bodies fall asleep? The scriptures do not mention the souls of God’s people being judged when they depart this life but can we see it in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)?
In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man let the poor man starve at his door. Jesus said, “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried”. Jesus says of the rich man, “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom”.
The rich man was in torment but Lazarus was in comfort. The rich man was concerned about his brothers, still living on earth. He wanted Lazarus to go back and warn them about that place. If his brothers were still living on earth, then Judgment Day had not come and the resurrection has not taken place. The rich man’s body was still in the tomb. Only his soul would have been in torment, in Hades. Remember, on that last day, all who are in the tomb will hear His voice and come forth. On that day, bodies and souls will be called into judgment and those who will be damned will be damned in body and soul (“fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” - Matthew 10:28).
A judgment had been made to cast the soul of the rich man into torment and allow the poor man to rest with Abraham until Judgment Day. That required some type of judgment as to where their souls would abide after their bodies had fallen asleep. Are the souls of God’s people judged for life or death when the body falls asleep and will the souls of those who have not done their works of love be condemned to torment? Will the souls of the elect rest until His coming? Was Peter telling us about that when he said that it was time for judgment to begin with the household of God? Is he speaking of unrighteous souls being condemned to torment before they are brought into judgment, in 2 Peter, chapter 2? That is where Peter wrote, "the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment".
Regarding souls in Hades, remember how Peter mentioned the soul and body of Jesus after His death (quoting from the Old Testament), saying, “BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY” (Acts, chapter 2). Did the Soul of Jesus descend into Hades when His Body went to sleep? Did not the Father rescue His Soul from Hades when He raised up His Body? Is there one place of comfort in Hades and one place of torment?
Both the rich man and the poor man were sons of Abraham because the poor man was in Abraham’s bosom after he died and the rich man called Abraham, “father”. Abraham told the rich man that his brothers had Moses and the prophets (the Old Testament scriptures) to warn them. If they had the Old Testament scriptures to warn them, then they were Jews and of God’s people (the old covenant was still in effect). Is Jesus not using this story to tell us about how judgment of God’s people is taking place as each servant finishes his (or her) work here on earth?
We have been seeing how the bodies and souls of God's people will be in different places after they pass from this life. The make up of ones being includes more than body and soul, however. Paul wrote, “may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Paul says that there are three components of our being. A complete person includes one's spirit, their soul and their body. All three components are required for one to be made complete. It also appears that Jesus will return with the spirits of His elect and they will be made complete in body, soul and spirit before they ascend to meet Him in the air. If the saints will be made complete and without blame when Jesus comes, it appears that they will be gathered to Jesus and will not come into judgment when the nations are judged.
If Jesus will be bringing the spirits of the saints with Him when He returns, will the spirits of the unbelieving nations not be coming back for their resurrected bodies? Will they be raised incomplete in body and soul, without their spirit? Only those who have been made perfect by the blood of Jesus will have been made complete and blameless when He returns.
When Jesus spoke of how He will cut the evil slave in pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers, was He speaking of seperating his soul and body from his spirit? Was the Hebrew writer saying the same thing when he spoke of the word being sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing and dividing the soul and spirit, joints and marrow (Hebrews 4:12)? Remember, Jesus is the Word. If the souls and spirits of unbelievers will be separated (or kept separate) at resurrection, then Jesus will do it by cutting them in pieces.
Will incomplete ones be left behind for judgment? Will unbelievers have their bodies and souls raised up to come into judgment without their spirits? Remember, the evil ones on the left will be cast into hell fire. They will be cast into hell in body and soul. It sounds like those nations before the throne will be there in body and soul but without their spirit. If so, they will be dead. The body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26).
Will only the dead be standing before Jesus on that Judgment Day? When John saw and described that judgment, he writes, “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” (Revelation 20:12). The dead will stand before the throne and be judged on that day, not the living. They will be judged according to their deeds, not according to their faith. Remember, His servants will be judged based on faithful service. That requires the same deeds of love but they will have been done in response to belief in and love for Him.
When the scriptures speak of believers having eternal life, we need to remember that true belief is obedient. Our favorite verse tells us that whoever believes in the Son has eternal life (John 3:16) but twenty verses later we read, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him". True believers are obedient. If we refuse to obey the Son, we are not true believers and we are dead. The wrath of God abides on those slaves who do not have an obedient faith. The evil slave who will not be found serving faithfully when Jesus returns will be cut in pieces and assigned a place with the unbelievers.
Jesus tells us that “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:26). Remember, Jesus also tells us, “he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life”. We are hearing about the spiritual death of unbelievers and how those that believe in Jesus have passed out of that death into life. Believers will not die and, somehow, they will not come into judgment.
We read where Jesus said of the one who has passed out of death that he “does not come into judgment”. Would that mean not coming into judgment in the flesh? It sounds like they will not come into judgment in the resurrected flesh if their souls have been judged and found faithful previously. Only unbelievers are dead and only the dead will be brought into judgment in body and soul on that last day.
If Jesus was really telling us that the nations being judged by Him at that time will include only unbelievers and they will be judged based on how they treated His brothers, it would fit with the day of vengeance that Paul describes in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1. He speaks of the affliction of the saints and vengeance. He wrote to that church and praised them for their perseverance in the midst of the persecution they were enduring at the hands of others. He tells them that they were suffering for the kingdom of God.
He will then speak of the judgment to come:
2 Thessalonians 1
6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
He is speaking to the church, the brothers of Jesus, and that includes all sons of God by faith. Paul speaks of how they were suffering for the kingdom of God just as Jesus suffered for it. He tells them that God will bring vengeance on those who were persecuting them and causing their suffering. Jesus will come and repay with affliction those who had afflicted His people. He will deal out retribution and eternal destruction to all who don’t know God and don’t obey the gospel.
The gospel of love is the good news that God loved us and His Son died for us. It must be obeyed with love. True gospel obedience requires that we love God first (with obedience) but we must love others also. We must especially love the sons that He died for.
Paul said (same chapter) that he was thankful because their love for each other was growing even greater. He was telling them that he was thankful that their gospel obedience was growing. In his first letter to that church He also spoke of their love for one another. We read (previously) that verse where he was asking the Lord to cause them to increase in love for each other and for all people, “so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (1 Thessalonians, chapter 3).
We must increase in love for the church and for all others, “so that” we will be blameless on that day. We must be blameless to become sons of God and heirs in His house. One of the requirements for becoming blameless is to love all people and to especially love God's sons.
Paul spoke of that day when Jesus will deal out retribution to those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel and said they “will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power”. God is Love (1 John 4:8) so they will be separated from love. They will have been separated from love and light and life to dwell forever in death and darkness.
In that same chapter Paul says that it will happen when, “He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed”. In another place he writes, “that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ”. They will be one in glory with Christ before the nations. Paul also said, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).
Jesus will be revealed in flaming fire on that day. When it happens, He will be glorified in His saints. Will the saints not be revealed with Him in glory when He gathers them from among the nations and sits in judgment before the nations? The saints will have been made one with Christ and will have been given His glory (John 17:21-22).
When Paul describes Jesus coming with vengeance, he is seeing the same judgment that Jesus spoke of in Matthew, chapter 25. Those who have not loved His brothers will see His vengeance and be placed on the left. If those separated to the right will not be His elect, who are they? If they will become heirs to the kingdom prepared for them how can they not be God’s elect?
Remember, Jesus will not mention faith as a reason for their reward. He will not tell them how they have become heirs to the kingdom because of belief in Jesus but because of their works of love for the brothers of Jesus. He will also not tell them how they did those works of love for “each other” but they did them for, “these brothers of Mine”. That sounds like His brothers are with Him at the throne.
Notice something else Jesus will not say. Those on the right are not being told they are to inherit the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. It appears that only those who have been saved by faith (that includes faithful service) will inherit the kingdom of heaven. Is He speaking of other kingdoms having been prepared for those on the right?
Those on the right will be heirs to the kingdom prepared for them from the beginning, because of their works of love. Is it possible that even those unbelievers who do works of love for His brothers (because His brothers are Christians) will be rewarded?
Jesus speaks of those blessed ones on the right saying how they will have eternal life because of their works of love for His brothers. That would be consistent with what Paul wrote in Romans, chapter 2. Paul wrote of those Gentiles who did not have the Law but who will be judged based on having the Law of God written in their hearts. He said, “it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified”. He spoke of the Gentiles who did not have the Law and how some, “do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves”. Jesus will judge them based on their law, the law of their heart.
It sounds like God will judge people who do not have the law of God, based on what is in their hearts and if they did good deeds, they will have, “glory and honor and peace” (verse 10). Paul said they will be justified by having done “instinctively” what God wants done. They will do God’s will by instinct and not by commandment.
Remember, “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and He loves those who love others with works of love. It appears possible that some people will be justified by their good works and not by their faith. If they will be justified and made righteous by their works and not by their faith, they would likely not be allowed to dwell with God or to see God because they will not have been made perfect by His blood. Only true believers have been made perfect in Jesus. It appears that anyone who will have been justified by works and not by faith will not be heirs in the kingdom of heaven. That sounds like the same thing that would be taking place if those on the right hand side are not true believers but good, loving people of the world who had been good to the brothers of Jesus.
Those who have been justified by faith in Jesus are made perfect “in Him”. They will become sons of God and heirs in the kingdom of God because they were made one together in Christ. When Jesus speaks of those loving ones on the right becoming heirs to the kingdom prepared for them is He speaking of other kingdoms out there in the new world?
Remember, after this earth has been destroyed, there will be a new heaven and a new earth and a New Jerusalem, the home of the Father and His sons. John describes it in Revelation, chapter 21, saying, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away”. John says of that new city, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”.
After this earth has passed away, God will provide a new heaven and a new earth and He will provide a new city of God. John describes that city of gold and he tells us how it will be the home of God. John writes that, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son”. That city will be the dwelling place for God and His sons. His sons are the ones who will have overcome by faith. John will also tell us how that city will have no need for the sun and moon because the glory of God will be its light and “its lamp is the Lamb”.
He will also speak of the nations of the earth in that chapter. John writes, “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it”. If the nations are to walk by its light then it will be the nations of that new earth because the old earth will no longer exist. The elect of God are the brothers of Jesus (the sons of God) and their home will be with the Father in Jerusalem , not out in those nations.
Will the loving ones from the nations of this earth (those on the right-hand side) inherit kingdoms and dwell out in the nations of the new earth? Will there be other kingdoms in the new world, subject to the everlasting King? Was Daniel speaking of that when he spoke of the Son of Man coming before the Ancient of Days? When Daniel saw One like the Son of Man coming before the Ancient of Days to receive His kingdom (Daniel, chapter 7), he writes, “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away”. Daniel will later speak of the saints of the Highest one being given, “the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven”.
The saints will not have dominion of all kingdoms under heaven on this earth. It will happen on the new earth because Daniel will continue by saying, “His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him”. All dominions serving Him in an everlasting kingdom must take place in the world to come because this world is not everlasting. We need to keep looking forward to the promised home with God. Paul tells us to “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:1-2).
Will those who did good deeds for the brothers of Jesus become heirs to other kingdoms in the new world? Will they possess those nations where the only light of the world will shine out from the city of God? If so, they will be subject to the saints (God’s sons) because the saints will be given authority over all those dominions. Will distant nations dwell in darkness (“darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you” - Isaiah 60:2)?
If the kings of the earth will bring their glory into that city, then the kings of the earth will be the brothers of Jesus because John tells us that only those who have washed their robes will have the right to enter through the gates of the city (Revelation 22:14). Only His brothers will have washed their robes in His blood.
Those righteous ones from the nations will come to that city to worship but it appears that they would not be allowed to enter through the gates. Will they worship from courts outside of the city like the old Law people had to stay outside of God’s holy temple? Will they rule over the damned? Will the damned dwell out there in deep darkness and burn like Jesus burned when He was offered on the altar of the cross as the only perfect sacrifice? Remember, Abraham told his son (Isaac) that "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:8). Jesus is the true lamb of God and He is the true burnt offering for Israel. His body was consumed in the spiritual fires of the cross.
The brothers of Jesus are the ones who will overcome this world. Jesus promised that, “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father” (Revelation 2:26). It will come about for those who overcome and keep His deeds to the end. That means it will happen after this earthly life is over. It appears that those who overcome this world and remain faithful until death on this earth will reign forever over the nations in a new world. It will be a world where, “All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name” (Psalms, chapter 86).
The Psalmist is speaking of the nations coming there to worship. When the nations come there to worship, it will not include God’s sons because God’s sons will be living in that city with the Father and the Lamb. They will have overcome and scripture says that “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name” (Revelation 3:12).
John says that outside the city “are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying” (Revelation 22:15). In the previous chapter, John spoke of those same ones, saying, “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death”.
Those evil ones will be outside of the city of that New Jerusalem but they will also be in the lake of fire. It sounds like hell will be outside the city of God, on the new earth. If so, that would be consistent with all of the unbelievers from this earth dwelling out in the nations of the new earth with the ones who knew how to love ruling over the damned.
Did Isaiah see hell out in the nations? He speaks of the new world and how all mankind will come and worship before the LORD and “then go forth and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die And their fire will not be quenched; And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind” (Isaiah 66:24). He is seeing a world where dead corpses will dwell in fire that will not be quenched.
Is this not the second death? Is hell to be located out there in those dark nations? Is that the outer darkness the scriptures speak of? Remember, there will be no sun or moon. The only light will be in that city of God. Will those destined for eternal destruction dwell in everlasting slavery in that outer darkness? Will they burn there forever?
Isaiah sees the damned but he also sees the living from those nations (all mankind) coming to worship. Notice, those dead corpses will not come to worship; only the living will come there to worship. It sounds like the living mankind of that new earth will be those from the right who will be given eternal life. They will have been given eternal life for their works of love for God’s sons, not because of their faith.
It sounds like those blessed ones from the right-hand side will become heirs to the kingdoms of the new earth. If that is true, then it would bring new light to some things that Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount. He said "Blessed are the gentle (meek), for they shall inherit the earth" and "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy". For the ones that Jesus said would inherit the kingdom of heaven, He said it was the "poor in spirit" and those "who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness". Remember, Jesus will tell those on the right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”. The meek will be blessed and they will inherit the earth.
If the righteous ones from the right-hand side (in judgment) are not the elect of God and will not have been justified by faith in Jesus, it brings up a question that must be addressed. If they will be given eternal life because of works of love for the brothers of Jesus, then many, if not most of them, would have heard the gospel being preached but will not have responded.
That creates a problem. The Great Commission statement in Mark, chapter 16, was to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned”. If some of those on the right heard the gospel message but they did not believe and obey the gospel, they stand condemned for their unbelief. If they stand condemned for their unbelief how can they be called righteous and be given eternal life?
Will all from the unbelieving nations be condemned to forever be separated from God? Those on the left will be condemned to “eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels”. If those from the right will be given eternal life in the nations but will never be allowed to enter that city and behold the face of God, they will be condemned to forever dwell in dark nations. It sounds like they may be allowed to walk by the light of that city (Revelation 21:24) but they will never enter into its glory. If that is true, then it will be more tolerable (in judgment) for some than for others.
Remember, Jesus said that “whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward” (Mark 9:41). That is one of the works of love that Jesus will speak of when He addresses those on the right hand side. Jesus does not qualify what He said based on belief in Him. The wording indicates that He is speaking of the good deeds of unbelievers because believers are the ones who will be following Him.
If part of the things that we see as possibilities are really true, how do we explain the scripture that tells us “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 4:11-12)? If eternal life is in the Son and those who do not have the Son do not have life, how could those on the right have eternal life outside of the Son?
Notice, what is really being said. Eternal life has already been given to believers. Remember, Jesus told the Jews that he who “hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life”. This is speaking in the present and past tense, not the future tense. It has already happened for believers. Their names have already been recorded in the book of life for life in the Son in that New Jerusalem. Remember, God is not limited by time. He knows who will overcome and be faithful to the end. Jesus tells us that, for those who overcome, He will not erase their names “from the book of life” (Revelation 3:5).
Those who overcome and keep His deeds until the end are the ones who will rule over the nations. It sounds as if believers have already been given eternal life and if they stay faithful, their name will still be on the list and they will be raised to life and will not come into judgment with the nations. If so, they will not be judged with the nations to see if they will be given eternal life because they already have it. It sounds possible that only those who had never been given life in the Son will be brought into that final judgment to determine if they are worthy of being justified by their good deeds for eternal life out in the nations of that new world. They cannot have eternal life with God because they will not have been made perfect by the blood of Jesus.
We know that God’s sons will reign in Jerusalem. They will reign over the nations, forever and ever. Will the righteous from the nations come to worship and give thanks for the great kindness returned to them for having loved others and especially having loved the brothers of Jesus? For the others, will they be dead bodies scattered through the darkness of those nations? Was not the Psalmist telling us the same thing when he spoke of the Lord at the right hand of the LORD and how, "He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses" (Psalms 110:6). That sounds like the vengeance that God will meet out to those who had afflicted His people.
Those who truly believe Jesus will obey with works of love. They are the ones who will have eternal life with God. It sounds like those who have only been justified by good works will have eternal life outside that city. Eternal life, however, is only for those whose names have been written in the book of life.
In Revelation 20:15, John writes that “if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire”. If those on the right will have eternal life, they must be recorded in that book. It appears that they may be recorded for life in the nations. Was Isaiah telling us there may be several lists in the book of life (Isaiah, chapter 4)? He speaks of those who will dwell in that Jerusalem, saying, “It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy--everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem”.
The Jerusalem where everyone living there will be holy will be that heavenly Jerusalem. Only holy ones who have been recorded for life in Jerusalem will be living there but it sounds like there will be nations living out in the new world. If there are peoples living out in nations of the new earth then they would need their names recorded for life in those nations. Remember, all mankind will be coming to Jerusalem to worship and then they will go forth to their nations. Remember, God’s sons will be living in Jerusalem. They will not be coming there to worship because they will be living in that city with the Father.
Remember, the old genealogical records for Israel had several lists. Members of each tribe were listed with their place of inheritance but the priesthood was listed separately. They were not heirs in that land because, “the LORD is their inheritance” (Deuteronomy 18:2). Peter said that we are a royal priesthood and a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). True believers are the new priesthood. Their inheritance is, “the LORD”.
Unlike that old high priest, our high priest is also KING of KINGS. If we overcome, He has promised that we will sit with Him on His throne (Revelation 3:21). Our place of inheritance will be in Jerusalem, the city of the holy nation. From there, we will reign with Jesus, forever (Revelation 22:5).
Only the new priesthood, are heirs with Jesus and will dwell with God in that new “Holy of Holies”, the New Jerusalem. They will have life in Jerusalem because they were recorded for life in Jerusalem but it appears that there will be people of other nations living out in that new world. It is over those nations that God's sons will reign forever.
Only those recorded in the book of life will be alive on that new earth. Anyone not recorded there will be dead. Those coming to that city to worship will be living mankind. That does not include the dead out in those dark nations. Those corpses will not come to that city to worship because God is the God of the living, He is not the God of the dead (Luke 20:38).
It appears that only holy ones are recorded for life in that Jerusalem and they will be made perfect and holy “in Jesus”. It appears that all others who are recorded in that book will be recorded for life out in the nations on the new earth.
We become sons of God by faith (whether male or female) when we obey His commandment and put Jesus on as our clothing (Galatians 3:26-29). We must be within the perfect High Priest and be wearing the High Priestly garment of Jesus to be made holy and be allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies with our High Priest. That has always been the promise to God’s faithful, the true sons of Abraham. The promise is for us to draw near through the veil of the flesh of Jesus (Hebrews 10:20).
Jesus is the veil leading to God’s dwelling place, the true Holy of Holies. The old Holy of Holies was only the earthly copy. Only the high priest could enter that room and he could not stay because he was not perfect and his blood offering was not perfect. Our High Priest and His offering were perfect. He has entered that room and has taken His seat at the right hand of the Father. Some day, He will bring His perfect ones (those made perfect by His offering) through the veil with Him.
We must be “in Jesus” to enter because only the high priest will enter the Holy of Holies. We will enter with Him because we will have been made one with Him and will be clothed in Him and will have been given His perfection.
Remember, under the old earthly copy, the Holy of Holies was that inner room in the temple. That room was God’s dwelling place among His people. It was a perfect cube of twenty cubits each way. It was completely covered with gold cladding. It was foretelling of the everlasting home of God in that New Jerusalem.
John tells us about that city in Revelation, chapter 21. John said an angel, “carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:10). John tells us that city will be a perfect cube and stand fifteen hundred miles high (its length, width and height are equal - verse 16). Remember, it will be a city of pure gold. Was not that old Holy of Holies telling of God’s true Holy of Holies? Only those made perfect by His blood will enter into that place. John said that only those who have washed their robes (in the blood of the Lamb?) will enter through the gates of that city (Revelation 22:14).
When John said that he was carried to a high mountain and was shown that city, was he telling us that high mountain is the holy city? It appears that it is fifteen hundred miles high in miles as we know them because the angel who measured it used a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and walls. John tells us that the wall measured seventy-two yards high “according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements”. It sounds like the city will stand fifteen-hundred miles high according to human measurements because he used the same rod to measure the city.
According to human measurements the highest mountain on this earth stands less than six miles in elevation above sea level. Compare that with a city fifteen-hundred miles high. It is hard to imagine any mountain on which that city would stand. It appears that the New Jerusalem is the great and high mountain that John spoke of.
Whether or not he is speaking of earthly miles, as we count miles, does not matter, the lesson is the same. It will be one really high dwelling place, relative to anything else around on that new earth. It sounds like the Mount Zion of God. God will dwell with His people "in that mountain".
We are seeing the same mountain that Isaiah spoke of. He tells us of nations coming there to worship, saying, "Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths" (Isaiah 2:2-3). It will happen at a time when nation will no longer lift up sword against nation and never again will they learn war.
If the only light of the world will come from that city, the righteous from the nations will walk by the light of the Lord (“The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” – verse 24). Will others dwell in darkness? Jesus spoke of the darkness of unbelievers. He said, “I have come as Light in to the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness” (John 12:46). Paul wrote, “you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8).
We read where only believers have passed out of death into life and now we see how believers have also passed out of darkness into light. It sounds like unbelievers are spiritually dead and are in spiritual darkness on this earth. Will the death and darkness of the new earth be like the spiritual death and darkness here?
Will the dead outside that city be something like the living dead that dwelled outside that old earthly city? Those who had been struck with leprosy in that old covenant land were like the living dead. They were unclean and were banished from the presence of God's people. Their bodies were rotting away as they stood on their feet. Was Zechariah foretelling that which was to come on the new earth when he wrote of those who had gone to war against Jerusalem and said, "their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth" (chapter 14)? If he is referring to the New Jerusalem, he is referring to the bride of Christ, the church (Ephesians, chapter 5, Revelation 21:9-10).
Paul tells us that Jesus is the only heir (Galatians 3:16), so we must be “in Him” to become heirs with Him. As the Hebrew writer tells us, “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1). A few verses later he will say how that by His one offering He has perfected for all time those who have been sanctified. We must be made perfect in order to draw near. Remember, only holy ones will be recorded for life in that Jerusalem. Only those who have been made perfect by His blood are holy. It appears that none of those from the unbelieving nations will be allowed in.
The prophets speak of God gathering His people from among the nations. Peter said that when the prophets spoke and “predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow”, it was the Spirit of Christ speaking (1 Peter 1:11). As the Spirit of Jesus spoke through the prophets, He was foretelling how He would come in glory and gather His spiritual Israel home.
Remember, Jesus is the Word. Jesus spoke through the prophets telling how He will gather His spiritual Israel from among the nations. Isaiah spoke of God gathering His spiritual Israel home in chapter 60. He said that, “Your sons will come from afar, And your daughters will be carried in the arms”. We can know that he speaks of the spiritual because he will tell us of that land where there will no longer be a sun or moon. He tells us that darkness will cover the earth. He says that, "Nations will come to your light" and that, “you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory”. He also writes, “all your people will be righteous; They will possess the land forever”.
This is the everlasting land and the spiritual Israel dwelling there forever. Isaiah speaks of how they had been persecuted. As he continues he speaks of what is to happen to those who had caused affliction for them. He wrote, “The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, And all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet”. He tells them, “You will also suck the milk of nations And suck the breast of kings”.
We are seeing the Spirit of Jesus speak through Isaiah telling us the same thing that He said when He spoke in the flesh and through the inspired writers of the first century. When He spoke through Paul He said that when He comes from heaven in flaming fire, He will repay with affliction the ones who have afflicted His people (2 Thessalonians 1:6). Isaiah said that the ones who had despised them will bow down to them. When He speaks through Isaiah, is He not speaking in terms of that future earth? Is He really telling about the new earth and the Israel of God, His brothers in spirit? The evil ones will be condemned for their treatment of God’s spiritual Israel.
Isaiah also spoke of judgment of the nations in chapter 34. He begins that chapter, saying, "Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples! Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it. For the LORD'S indignation is against all the nations, And His wrath against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to slaughter".
Read that chapter and look closely at what Isaiah is saying. He is speaking of the end and final judgment. He says that the host of heaven will wear away and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll. The LORD will destroy the nations. Their corpses will give off their stench. He is speaking of the nations and of Edom. The nation of Edom was made up of the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel). The nations of Edom and Israel were brothers but Edom persecuted his brother, Israel.
When God spoke through the prophets of the destruction of Edom, He was telling of final judgment of the nations. The nations are the brothers of God’s spiritual Israel, the descendants of Jacob by faith. The LORD has a day of vengeance coming. It will be a day of vengeance for the cause of Zion. He is speaking of final judgment and of vengeance for His people. Isaiah tells how the final dwelling place for Edom will be a land of burning pitch that will not be quenched and its smoke will rise forever. The enemies of God’s people will answer for their treatment of them. Their final resting place will be a land of desolation.
God's covenant promise to Abraham (Genesis, chapter 17) was to be God to Abraham and his descendants and to give them the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. God was giving Abraham both the old coveant promise for an earthly land and the new covenant promise for a spiritual land. The first promise was for Abraham's earthly descendants and the second promise was for his descendants by faith.
The old covenant was faulty (Hebrews 8:7). It was faulty because man is faulty. It could never give man an everlasting Canaan because it did not include the blood of Jesus. Abraham never received that earthly Canaan because it was never the true promise. Abraham understood that and it can be seen in Hebrews, chapter 11. The writer spoke of Abraham, saying, "By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God". Abraham lived in that earthly land as an alien. He never received an inheritance there. He knew that the real promise was that heavenly Jerusalem, not an earthly land.
God's promises to Abraham were to him and to his descendants by faith. When we look closely at some of the details of those promises we can see some interesting things. When God first called Abraham from his country and his people and told him to go to the land that God would show him (Genesis, chapter 12), He told Abraham how He would bless him and all of the families of the earth would be blessed in him. God also told him how he would deal with outsiders. He told Abraham “I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse”. Does that sound something like what Jesus will tell those before Him in judgment? He will judge them based on how they will have treated His brothers, the spiritual sons of Abraham.
Another interesting promise is found in Genesis, chapter 22, after God had tested Abraham by commanding him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. Remember what God said (through the angel) to Abraham after he obeyed God and placed Isaac on the altar to offer him as a burnt offering? God restated His promises to Abraham about how all nations would be blessed in his seed and his seed would be multiplied like the sand on the seashore. God added something to His promise. He added the promise that "your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies" (Genesis 22:17-18). That occurred on rare occasions in that earthly Canaan . The true promise will come to all of his descendants by faith. God will keep His promises.
Is Jesus not speaking through Moses telling of life in the world to come? Is Jesus telling us that the eternal punishment for those evil ones on the left will be the punishment of eternal slavery out in the dark nations? Will they forever bow down at the feet of God's sons? It sounds like they will have become slaves to the righteous from the righthand side (in judgment) and also to the sons of God. That would be one awful hell to be found in for all eternity, especially for those who had valued freedom on this earth. That would truly be so if the slave knew that he had been told that a mansion in glory was his if he had only believed the messenger.
Will the hell fire torment of the damned include everlasting slavery in that dark new world? Will it be like the slavery that Israel lived under while in Egypt? Moses will speak to the next generation and refer to the slavery that their fathers endured and say, "But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession" (Deuteronomy 4:20). Will true believers have been saved from that furnace? Will the damned dwell there forever? Will the everlasting fire to come be like the slavery that Israel had to endure in Egypt?
We heard John describe that new world and the damned being outside the city. Will they forever burn in dark slavery because they did not believe Jesus and follow Him out of their slavery to sin? If they were never saved from slavery, they will still be dead and they will never be free from slavery to sin and death. Remember, Jesus tells us that the ones who have believed Him have passed out of death. The damned will still be dead in the world to come.
When Jesus spoke of judgment of the nations through Joel (chapter 3), He said it would happen in the valley of Jehoshaphat . That valley lies east of the temple mount and is also known as the Kidron valley. Joel tells how God will “gather all the nations And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land”.
He will judge the nations on behalf of His people. He speaks of spiritual Israel because it will be where, “Jerusalem will be holy, And strangers will pass through it no more” and “Judah will be inhabited forever And Jerusalem for all generations”. He also says, “Egypt will become a waste, And Edom will become a desolate wilderness, Because of the violence done to the sons of Judah”. He says, “I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged, For the LORD dwells in Zion”.
While on earth, Jesus did not speak of resurrecting only the nations for judgment to avenge His people. Or did He?? Was Jesus saying just that in Matthew, chapters 24 and 25? God gathered His people from among the nations and after that He judged the nations. He will judge them based on how they treated, “these brothers of Mine”. This appears to be judgment of the nations to avenge His people, not judgment of His people. It appears that He will gather His people and then He will judge the nations.
Ezekiel also said something about how it will be when God gathers His people. God tells His people that, “I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered” (Ezekiel, chapter 20). In that same chapter Ezekiel records, “As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will prove Myself holy among you in the sight of the nations”.
Remember what Paul said about how Jesus will be glorified in His saints? Paul spoke of that day when Jesus will be revealed and said that it will happen, “when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed”. The name of Jesus will be glorified in His saints on that day. Jesus will prove Himself holy among them when He gathers them to Himself in the sight of the nations.
We heard John speak of that New Jerusalem. We also heard Isaiah tell how all mankind will come there to worship. There is another reason why the remnant of the nations will come to Jerusalem. Remember, that city is where the tree of life grows. John mentioned something about that tree and it’s leaves in Revelation, chapter 22. He saw the river of life coming from the throne of God and the tree of life on either side of that river. He said “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations”. God’s sons will dwell in Jerusalem. The nations will be dwelling out in the new world. Those healing leaves will be for the nations, not God's sons.
Paul wrote about Christians and their new bodies in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. He tells us we will have spiritual bodies that will be imperishable and immortal. Paul also wrote how Jesus will, “transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory” (Philippians 3:21). God’s sons will have been made perfect in Jesus. Their bodies should not require healing. We will be like Jesus. All of God’s sons will be perfect and immortal. Imperishable and immortal bodies will have no pain and no tears and will need no leaves for healing.
God’s perfect sons will be dwelling in Jerusalem and they will be the ones having access to the tree of life. Will they give its leaves to those who need healing? Remember, if some of those from the nations will be justified by good works and not by faith in Jesus, they will not have been made perfect by His blood. They will need those leaves for healing. That is exactly what John wrote. Those leaves are, “for the healing of the nations”. Will those kind hearted ones from the right-hand side be the only ones from the nations to receive those leaves? Will the evil ones remain unhealed? That would make sense because the dead can’t be healed.
God will destroy this earth and its heavens and there will be a new heavens and earth with a New Jerusalem. That city is the everlasting dwelling place for God and His holy ones. It will be on a new earth where the elect will rule over the nations with a rod of iron. What nations would it be except those nations before Jesus in judgment?
Regarding judgment and heaven and the world to come, my picture has changed greatly within the last few years. It appears that Judgment will not be comprised of everyone being either saved in heaven or damned to hell. The saved will not go to heaven. They will be brought into the heavenly home of God but that home will be the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to the new earth.
Will it be more tolerable for those unbelievers who know how to love with deeds of love than for the evil ones who did evil deeds? God requires that His sons be treated with respect and that everyone show their love for them with works of love. Will the loving ones from the nations be allowed to come to the gates of that city to worship God and be allowed to walk by the light of God’s glory in a new world because of their good deeds for the brothers of Jesus? Will they, however, forever be tormented with the knowledge that eternal glory with God was theirs for the taking if only they had believed?
Do I believe that this book presents a perfect picture of judgment and the coming world? No, because, after you read the book, you will see that many questions have been presented but many answers will still be hidden. We can see some obvious answers and some possible answers but much of what I have presented here and what will be presented as possibilities in the book is just that; just possibilities.
If some of the things that we have been seeing as possibilities turn out to be true, then we need to have been very careful in our judgment of others (even of unbelievers) in this life. Jesus may allow me to sit with Him in judgment on that last day but I must be careful about judging others in this life. If some unbelieving outsiders will really be called “blessed of My Father” and will be given eternal life in the nations of that new world, then what Jesus said about judging others, in Matthew, chapter 7 (“Do not judge so that you will not be judged") may also apply to them. They may be judged as unworthy of the kingdom of heaven but some of them may not be damned to everlasting hell fire. I fear that I may have been guilty of doing that in the past.
There is no doubt about what is waiting for God’s sons in glory. The questions have to do with judgment and the future of unbelievers who have done deeds of love. Remember, Paul said that some will have been “justified” by having done “instinctively” what God requires. We know that believers are justified by faith in Jesus and they will obey His commands to love others. Some others will love by instinct.
Jesus expects us to keep listening and He will keep revealing more to us. All scripture is true, so the true answers to our questions must reflect that. I have seen enough to know that my old beliefs about judgment were not consistent with what Jesus has said. I may not be able to see everything about judgment and the new world to come but I can see that my old ideas that had everyone either being put on the right and given heaven or placed on the left and being damned to hell is not scriptural.
I am not from one of the schools of theology. I am a Christian and a retired engineer. It has only been within the last few years that I have come to realize that God means exactly what He says when He speaks and that includes what He says about judgment and the new world to come.
You will notice that I have used the New American Standard translation for the copied scriptures in this book. You may wish to also read the same scriptures from the translation that you normally use.
Johnny Rogers 9-29-05
Revised 1-23-08
Image of the cross is from FreeFoto.com
Link For cross - http://www.freefoto.com/preview/05-08-10?ffid=05-08-10&k=Cross+at+Sunset