In Part 2 of this series about judgement, my goal was to explain from the bible why there will be a coming final judgement. I focused on the topic of why God’s love is perfectly consistent, and even demands final judgement of the unrepentant.

This post focuses more on the cultural concept of love which is forced on God. The culture actually believes its permissive concept of love is superior to the love of God as understood from the bible. Permissive love excludes judgement. But contrary to the popular consensus, love of God and the death and resurrection of Christ demand final judgement of “all things that cause sin and all lawbreakers” as the parable says. Final judgement is necessary for salvation to mean anything.

⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. ⁴² They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 13:41-42

Why is the very clear biblical doctrine of judgement misunderstood? The primary reason is its just not taught in the church. Neither is a correct biblical understanding of God’s love. Without correct understanding according to the Word of God, the love of God defaults to the distorted cultural concept of love. The cultural perspective about love is full of error and does not align with the biblical concept of God’s love at all.

Unfortunately, the ever evolving and corrupt cultural concept of love is accepted even by many Christians to the detriment of the gospel. Here is how that error opposes the gospel: the bad conclusion people arrive at based on a cultural definition of love, is that a truly loving God would never judge someone and send them to hell.

Judgement is not “loving” in the eyes of an unrepentant culture. And yet every kind of wickedness we see today is just fine because it conforms to the cultural concept of love which does not accept the clear moral boundaries of biblical love. Without scriptural truth to define love within moral standards, without the gospel that empowers us to live within those standards, the love of the world becomes increasingly permissive. Anything goes. Accountability to moral standards is rejected.

Operating under the cultural concept of love, anybody can say or do anything they want with impunity – unless of course, its obedience to the Word of God. Preaching the gospel, calling people to repentance and trust in Jesus Christ is too judgmental and therefore its foolishness. Christians who hold to the Word of God and the message of the gospel are fools in the opinions of the wicked who are perishing.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18

Isn’t it ironic that people who say “be kind”, love everyone, accept anything and everything, are the same ones who are unkind and hate filled towards Christians? If its biblical Christians sharing a biblical message, its OK to hate them. The day is coming when its OK to “remove” them. Some recent stories in my news feed are already calling for the elimination of Christians. Yes, that’s where we have come to as a nation. But then, that is exactly what has been prophesied by Jesus.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

Matthew 24:9

(Maybe we are not there yet in America, but its coming. You believers – remain faithful to the Lord regardless of the circumstances. And remember, it is an honor and a privilege to suffer for the sake of the Name and the gospel. Don’t pursue suffering and persecution but when it comes as a result of your faithfulness to the Lord, then embrace it by the grace of God.)

When a person rejects the gospel, when a nation turns its back on the God of Heaven, all kinds of wickedness ensue. Long standing biblical moral values that have proven effective for an orderly society that reveres God and His Word are discarded in the name of love.

Once the biblical definition of God’s love is disposed of, then its easy to conclude that God does not send anyone to hell because according to the culture, there is no judgement. Its always back to the same lie to Adam and Eve in the beginning. God sets boundaries, the enemy deceives them that there are no boundaries, that God will not judge.

The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.

Genesis 3:4-5

According to the serpent there is no judgement – do anything you want. “You will not die” the enemy says in direct contradiction to the Creator God who made us all. We just cannot get away from that lie can we? The fact is God does judge and He will absolutely consign the unrepentant to hell based on choices and behaviors while living this life…and we all have sinned.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

And the wages of sin is still death, despite the satanic contradiction.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

The good news is God will forgive sin – but only on His terms and conditions. The love of God is indeed universally offered but unfortunately not universally received. Why? That was explained in Part 2 of this series.

The Reasoning of Man Removes the Need for the Gospel

After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the gospel was advanced in accordance with the mission the Lord gave us through the Apostles (the 12 original Apostles of Christ). But over time the lie of the garden was modified slightly to undermine the gospel. The Lord made perfectly clear that salvation – redemption, the forgiveness of our sins – requires repentance and faith in Christ. The lie of the enemy is that salvation does not require repentance or faith in Christ. Let me give an example of human reasoning that makes the gospel irrelevant:

In my example, I’ll address a common philosophical question:

I have heard people say convincingly that God will allow people into heaven under other circumstances that don’t involve the gospel, for example, the hypothetical cannibals on some remote pacific island that have never heard it before. When I state the biblical perspective that, without the gospel, people remain under condemnation, I am “judgmental”. Here is the irony in this perspective: concluding that God will allow people into heaven who have not heard the gospel is in itself a human judgement. Judgement cuts both ways either for heaven or hell. It is only the court of heaven that renders a verdict based on the gospel. But people get annoyed with the biblical warning of condemnation and reject it because it doesn’t measure up to the cultural perspective of God’s love. At the same time they themselves presumptuously declare universal salvation – everyone is going to heaven as long as they are “sincere”.

People are not qualified or called to condemn people to hell. But people are also not qualified or called to render the reverse judgement that people are going to heaven. Judgment either way is the realm of God alone and its best simply to leave it in His hands rather than rely on human reasoning. That said, there is biblical basis for the warning of judgement. Those who preach the gospel are not qualified to say someone specifically is or is not going to hell. But it is completely valid to warn people of judgement unless they repent and believe. Its part of the gospel message.

Conversely, there is no biblical basis for the promise of heaven without the gospel. This is only human philosophy which usually flows from a false premise about the love of God, rendering the message of the gospel irrelevant, and undermines the mission of the church. To properly understand salvation and judgement, I’d recommend John chapter 3 – read all of it.

Its an unbiblical conclusion that God won’t send people to hell. The argument of “infinite mercy” conveniently excludes the perfect Holiness of God. I am not sure the concept of infinite mercy is even biblical, but I’ll hold my conclusion until I’ve done the research. Anyway, given this premise that infinite mercy apparently trumps perfect holiness according to human understanding, God apparently won’t judge the wicked and they will be permitted to enter into heaven after maybe a brief timeout in hell or purgatory. The logic sometimes is that a little time in hell or maybe the direct encounter of the unrepentant with Jesus will change their minds and they will repent. They won’t. The reason people remain under judgement is their deeds are evil. They love the darkness rather than the light. The Pharisees were in the direct presence of the Messiah, spoke with him, observed his miracles, heard the sermon on the mount and yet persisted in their unbelief and their opposition to him. They conspired against him and had him executed in collaboration with the pagan Roman government. So it will be during the Great Tribulation and so it will be all the way up to the end of the age.

As for the cannibals who have never heard the gospel, they are sinners. But here is the thing: another false and presumptuous assumption we have is that God withholds the gospel – that He doesn’t care about the cannibals. The mission was and still is to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. We are human and don’t know the mind of God regarding people who have never heard the gospel, other than to understand its our mandate to reach them. That we do know because Jesus told us. The church should focus on the mission of the gospel instead of rendering it ineffective with our human philosophies tainted by the wicked and demonic ideas about what love is.

Besides, just for a moment, forget the remote tribes that have never heard the gospel. What about you? Anyone who has been confronted with the gospel is accountable before God. You’ve heard it or read it, what are you going to do with it? Reject it? Then you remain under condemnation. Let God worry about the remote cannibals in the rain forest. We should be a little more concerned about our own response.

The fact is God is love. But a loving God will judge and sentence people to the Lake of Fire just as He says. Its a very raw and explicit message of the bible which we apparently ignore – a great disservice to the Lord as well as to humans who need salvation. The love of God is a universal invitation to step away from judgement. By His love, He has provided all of us with a way, not only to avoid the judgement, but to become one of the righteous who will inherit the most fantastic reality – the Kingdom of the Son and ultimately the Kingdom of the Father. This is the Kingdom that will remain forever. As it says in Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the tares:

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. Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Matthew 13:41-43

The End of the Age

“The end of the age” verbiage is used a few times only in the gospel of Matthew, twice in the Parable of the Tares. According to Jesus, the end of the age occurs at the end of His personal 1000 year reign upon the earth. So what then defines the “end of the age”? Jesus indicates it in His explanation of the parable of the Tares.

The end of the age is this: Jesus dispatches His angels who will gather from the earth all that causes sin (the stumbling blocks, the triggers, the temptations), all who commit lawlessness. This defines the end of the age, and it corresponds to the final judgement of the unrepentant dead and the final disposition of death, hell, satan, and all causes of sin in the lake of fire.

No more sin, no more tempter, no more demons, no more enticements to sin, no more sinful nature in the heart of man, no more distortions and deceptions about the love of God. All things restored back to the way they were always intended to be. The righteous men and women reigning together with Christ, under His authority and the authority of the Father. I am longing for that day! I am so tired of the sin and the torrent of garbage in the culture coming from reprobate minds that refuse to repent.

Don’t remain one of those who commit lawlessness. That only assures your judgement as described. Remember – we are all lawbreakers because we all sin. Judgement of sin will absolutely happen because God will not go through the sinfulness of the world again by allowing the unrepentant into His Kingdom. His perfect love gives you a way out from under condemnation. The only way to avoid the judgement of God is to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

John 5:24 (emphasis mine)

Repent, believe, receive the Lord Jesus. Become one of the righteous who not only will be delivered from judgement but will inherit a glorious reality of immortality in the forever Kingdom of God.