You'll Be Judged.

 When do you think you will be judged? When is your judgment day? Do we all have the same judgment day? 

When you die you no longer have an opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. At that point your eternal life has been decided but you will not receive the actual sentence based on that decision until our Savior returns for us. The outcome of the judgment made isn't immediate. The Bible tells us clearly that we do not reunite with our Savior (if we've died in Christ) until He returns and calls us from our graves to meet Him in the air. (1 Thess. 4:16) Those who die not in Christ remain in their graves then they are raised only to die yet again, this time permanently. 

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 

Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 

There is a resurrection of damnation, this is Biblical fact.

For those alive when Christ returns, those who belong to Christ will rise to meet Him in the air- their bodies changed to immortal, to incorruptible. For those who don't belong to Christ when He returns they will die.

We have to comprehend that there are two choices life with Christ, or death without Christ.

You will have your judgment day- those living when Christ returns will be judged before then, they will be sealed as His or marked as belonging to the beast. Truth be told- we don't know when our eternal life is judged because we don't know when we will die and we don't know the date of Christ's return. What we do know is… we are judged. I want Christ as my advocate when my time of judgment comes, I want to be found in Him and He in me!

All by the mercy and grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Now and forever! AMEN!!!!!!

*******

(EXCERPT)

A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Unjust (continued)

By J.H. Waggoner

"WHAT SAY THE SCRIPTURES?" (Continued)

In examining the Scriptures, I will arrange the texts under certain propositions, to give a better view of my objections to the non-resurrection theory…

Our relation to the judgment of God is a most solemn and important matter, and we cannot be too careful how we reason upon it, or to what conclusions we come in regard to it. If our errors do not result disastrously to ourselves, they may yet prove stumbling-blocks to others, by leading them to presume upon the mercy of God, and to detract from that judgment and justice which is the habitation of his throne. Such, and so dangerous, I think, is the tendency of this non-resurrection theory.

Other texts of like import might be adduced, but the design is to prove the positions taken, not to try to exhaust the proofs thereon.

(Objections to the non-resurrection theory---)

III. It ignores a "day of judgment" in which actions shall be weighed and punishment awarded.

That this proposition is true in regard to that theory, cannot be denied; for, according to that view, every person is fully punished when he is dead. Every day is a day of judgment and execution. That this is not a scriptural view I now offer proof.

Acts 17:31: "Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."

I am firmly of the belief, in reference to the judgment and destiny of the wicked, that the day of judgment is a definite, appointed time, and succeeds "the day of salvation." Our Saviour made known his mission by reading from the prophet, as recorded in Luke 4:16-21: "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been been brought up; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath

anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." By turning to Isa. 61, from which the Saviour read, we find that verse 3 reads thus: "To proclaim the acceptable year of theLord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." Why did the Saviour stop his reading so abruptly, without reading the sentence following, so closely connected with that which he read? Evidently because no more was that day fulfilled than he read. "The acceptable year of the

Lord" was then existing; "the day of vengeance" was a future time, and could not then be proclaimed. So the apostles preached. Paul quoted from another part of Isaiah's prophecy respecting this time, and added, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2. The accepted time, or acceptable year of the Lord, and day of salvation, are evidently the same. Not a period of definite, or given, length; not a literal day or year; for these terms, as well as "hour" in Rev. 14:7, and other places, are used to denote periods without regard to length. The "day of salvation" has now continued over one thousand eight hundred years. Speaking of this day, Paul said it is "now;" but referring to

the judgment day he said it was a day appointed in the which he will judge-in the future. And so again, in Acts 24:25: Felix trembled when Paul reasoned of "judgment to come." He could not have trembled to hear it announced that he would not be raised from the dead; for he had never believed in a resurrection. And it is hard to believe that he would tremble that Paul should tell him he would die; for he had always known that. Paul must certainly have reasoned of a future judgment-the day of judgment-to make this heathen king tremble. In the remarks of those who deny the resurrection of the unjust, on the day of judgment, as well as in their expositions of particular texts, they harmonize with the Universalists. Every day is the execution of judgment to somebody. Besides this, there have been several particular days of judgment. But the Scriptures do not so speak. In Acts 17:31, Paul says God has appointed a day in the which he will judge. He says "a day," because there are other days beside that; but he, and all other Bible writers, say "THE day of judgment," because there is but one day of that kind. When "a day" is appointed for judgment, it then becomes "the day"-the only day set apart for that purpose. Let this be borne in mind as we

examine the texts. The testimony of Peter is so clear and decisive on this point as to leave no room for doubt. He says, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." 2 Pet. ii, 9. 

On this Eld. Storrs remarks: 

"We may be sure Peter had reference only to the living wicked, who should no more escape the judgment of death than the old world or Sodom did. God would reserve, hold, or keep them to that judgment, and they 'shall be brought to the grave and remain in the tomb,' after the 'ensample' Peter spoke of." Life from the Dead, p. 69.

This is not according to the expression of this and other texts, and cannot be the truth concerning these Scriptures. Peter does not merely say they shall be held to judgment, to death, but they shall be reserved "unto the day of judgment." The whole question turns on this: whether Peter refers to indefinite times, as the day of each man's death, or to a definite future time, when all the unjust shall be punished. The latter appears to be true, from the reading of the text, and is shown to be certainly true by chap. 3 of this same letter; for, fortunately, he has clearly set forth in the latter chapter what he means by the day of judgment. In chap. 3:7, he says; "The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same

word are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Here a fact is stated concerning the heavens and the earth in the very same terms that are used concerning the unjust, in chap. 2:9.

The earth is reserved unto fire, and the unjust are reserved to be punished, and both alike unto the day of  judgment; and to make it sure beyond all dispute, the day of judgment, against which the heavens and the earth are reserved unto fire, is also declared to be the

day of perdition of ungodly men. But again, he not only defines "the day of judgment" to be that day in the which the heavens and the earth shall be dissolved with fire, or melted with

fervent heat, but he proceeds to give a reason why that day is delayed, which would not be required if Mr. Storrs' view were correct; for, according to that view, there is no delay; that day is every day whenever an unjust man dies! In giving this reason Peter makes "the day of the Lord" to coincide with "the day of judgment." And the whole is introduced by the subject of the second advent, or rather, these remarks fall under an argument on that subject. This phrase, the  day of the Lord, is often used in the prophetic writings, and always in such manner as to show its application to a definite time, immediately subsequent to "the day of salvation." It is used by Paul in 1 Thess. 5:2, in an argument concerning the coming of the Lord. He says, "Of the times and seasons ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." This proves that the coming of Christ and the coming of the day of the Lord are so closely related that one naturally suggests the other. This, together with the words of Peter, who makes the day of the Lord synonymous with the day of judgment, fixes to a certainty

this fact, that "the day of judgment" is a definite time-a future day, the day of perdition of ungodly men, not a part of ungodly men, but of every soul that doeth evil, Jew and Gentile. 

The uniform use of the phrase, "the day of the Lord," in both Testaments, proves the correctness of this exposition. A few instances of its use by the prophets, I notice:

"Thus saith the Lord God: Howl ye, Woe worth the day! For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen." Eze. 30:2, 3.

"Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come." Joel 1:15.

"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Chap. 2:1.

"And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army; for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word; for the day of the Lord is great, and very terrible; and who can abide it?" Verse 11.  

"Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty." Isa. 13:6.

"Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and they shall be brought low." Isa. 2:10-12.

"In that day shall a man cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth." Verses 20, 21.

This last quotation from the prophet Isaiah is exactly parallel with Rev. 6:14-17, which relate to the events of that great day under the opening of the sixth seal. In that day they endeavor to hide "from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb," saying, "For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

No one can doubt that the expressions, day of the Lord, day of wrath, day of perdition, and day of judgment, refer to the same period, to which day the unjust are reserved to be punished; and the wicked who prospered in his way in this life, and died in peace and quiet, shall be brought forth to the day of wrath; for every soul of man that doeth evil shall suffer tribulation and anguish, indignation and wrath, in that day. If anything can be clearly proved by the Scriptures, it seems to me that this is proved, that the unjust are reserved to be punished, not to the day of the death of each individual, but to the day in which the heavens and earth shall melt with fervent heat, which is the day of the Lord, the day of judgment, the day of perdition of ungodly men. 

TO BE CONTINUED….