It is always interesting to ask people what they believe about divine judgment.  Will it happen?  Whom will it involve?  How will it work?  What will be the results?  Does the prospect concern you?

To hear many people talk, the answer to this last question is clearly, “no.”  Why?  

Because, “I’m a good person” [according to current societal norms, but they blow with the wind so, stay tuned for updates].  

Because, when I selectively compare myself to the worst human beings, I actually look pretty good [in my own eyes].  

Because, “God knows my heart” [is in the right place, even while my actions are not].  

Because, “A loving God would never send anyone to hell” [I hope…].  

Because, “We’re all God’s children” [even the atheists and God-haters].  

Because, “Everybody gets to heaven” [eventually, if not immediately after death]. 

Because, because, because…

If what they say is true, judgment for them, has only upside potential.  It would showcase their worthiness and highlight their accomplishments.  It would provide the opportunity and the stage on which to receive the recognition and rewards they deserve—everlasting bliss chief among them.

Other people professing unconcern about the prospect of God’s judgment do so because of their denial of God’s existence.  There is no judgment to worry about, they say, since there is no judge. This crowd is fiercely determined to discredit the very notion of God and to dismiss as ignorant fools those who firmly believe in Him.

Why do they spend billions probing the universe to ‘discover the mysteries of its origins?’ Why cling to evolution with the tenacity and fervor of fanaticism?  Why insist that right and wrong, truth and lies, fact and fiction, reality and fantasy are just concepts, with no basis in actuality?

They do this because to them, the alternative is simply intolerable.  The moment the slightest allowance is made for the existence of a creator, the possibility of our being answerable to that creator enters through the same door.  No creator, no creatures, and no accountability.  Problem solved!

But, but, but…God’s word, the Bible says—  Yes, it does. Tragically, most people are not listening.   Although they don’t know the Bible, they don’t believe it is God’s word.  Some have never heard the amazing story of mercy and redemption it tells.  We must do all we can to reach out to them with the good news that they are not the meaningless result of long (and frankly unbelievable) chains of cosmic accidents, but are uniquely created by a God who loves them and wants a relationship with them, a God who has already sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for their sins, so that those who believe in Him as their resurrected Lord might enjoy eternal life.

Others are like the all-powerful Pharaoh of Egypt who said to Moses, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice…?  I know not the LORD…” (Exodus 5:2).  The implication is, “and I don’t WANT to know.” Pharaoh was worshipped as divine, part of the already overcrowded pantheon of the gods of ancient Egypt, and he had no interest in knowing the God of his Hebrew slaves.  Scripture says repeatedly that the problem with Pharaoh was not mere ignorance of the true God, but a deliberate hardening of his own heart against Him.

This proud and stubborn attitude led to ruin for Pharaoh and all Egypt at that time. Regardless of the “spin” his administration put on the ten great plagues that forced Pharaoh to release the Israelites, his own officials could not help admitting that it was the hand of Israel’s God that was behind these extraordinary judgments.

The court-appointed magicians who attempted to replicate God’s miracles by occult means, dropped out early in the contest, warning Pharaoh that, “This is the finger of God” (Exodus 8:19).  As the progressively harsher judgments from God continued to unfold, the government was divided.  There were those who “feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh” and those who “regarded not the word of the Lord” (Exodus 9:20-21).  Those who took warning fared noticeably better.

Near the end, Pharaoh’s cabinet was desperate enough to rebuke him and his heedless, reckless, God-less leadership: “And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man [Moses] be a snare unto us?  Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?”  (Exodus 10:7). Everyone it seems, but the supposedly divine head of state had come to the realization that they were not dealing with natural phenomena, but were being confronted by the supernatural work of the God of Israel.

Let us move on now from judgments past to judgments yet future.  For this column, I have selected just one: the fearsome earthquake that occurs when Jesus Christ opens the sixth seal on the scroll containing God’s plan for the last days and the wind-up of history as we know it. The description of this judgment reads in part: “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places” (Revelation 6:14).  This worldwide earthquake is so devastating that it alters the typography of the entire planet—a truly terrifying prospect.

The reaction of earth’s inhabitants in that day is foretold in the Bible:

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?  (Revelation 6:15-17) 

This is not the end nor even near the end of the many judgments against a Christ-rejecting world detailed in the Apocalypse.  Yet, by this time, people have already begun to admit what they appear to have known all along, and can simply no longer deny: the source of the judgments is God Almighty, the real deal.  What is more, the imagery of the One sitting on the throne and of the Lamb who was slain but is now miraculously alive again, comes straight out of the Bible. In using it, they testify against themselves that they know that the Bible really is the word of God.  They also attest not only to Jesus’ resurrection, but to His divinity, power and authority, including His right to judge. Here is but a small sampling of the evidence.

While God the Father sits on the throne (Revelation 4, 5:1), Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29) stands “in the midst of the throne” and is also identified with the Holy Spirit (Revelation 5:6).

In Revelation 5:5, Jesus is described as the root from which His earthly ancestor, King David, had sprung.  He is identified as the Lion of the tribe of Judah and as the only one worthy to break the seals on the scroll, activating its contents. Jesus is uniquely qualified to do this because he “hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.”  Jesus, the Lamb, also receives worship, prayers and songs of praise (Revelation 5:8-9) with unmistakable meaning: “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation.”  In Revelation 5 v. 11-12, Christ receives the praise of millions of angels.

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

Do you belong to Christ?  If so, give thanks, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ…” (I Thessalonians 5:9).  For everyone else, there is no hiding from the wrath of the One who sits on the throne.  There is no escape from the wrath of the Lamb, risen in glory and soon to return as the all-powerful Lion of Judah.  The great day of His wrath is almost here.  And in case it is not obvious, the despairing cry, “and who shall be able to stand?” is a rhetorical question.  No one will be able to stand the heat of the judgment to come.

If you do not belong to Jesus, don’t wait until the truth of these words hits home for you personally.  Repent and believe in your heart that Christ died for your sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures (I Corinthians 15:3,4).  Confess Him as Lord and receive His love and forgiveness.  The Lord is merciful and mighty to save. Don’t leave His gift of pardon unclaimed.

“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”  (I John 5:11-12).  It really is that simple, that stark, that urgent. Call out to Him now.  “For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).