The Coming Judgments

As we read the Bible and understand what is going to happen in the End Times, we recognize that there are going to be several judgments at this time. The two most of us discuss are the Bema Seat Judgment and the White Throne Judgment.

Let’s start with the Bema Seat Judgment. What is the Bema Seat Judgment? The Bema Seat comes from Romans 14 and 2 Corinthians 5 where we read about a Judgment that Jesus will hold among those who believe in Him. In these verses, we read about the “judgment seat” of Christ. In the Greek, the work for judgment seat is “bema”. What is this bema? In Roman times, when people sat in judgment of someone, they would sit on the bema, which was a seat that was raised up. We see this in the Gospels when Jesus was being tried by Pilate. Pilate sits on a bema as he presides over the events of Jesus’ trial and condemnation.

However, the Greeks also used a bema for another reason – as a judge in sporting events. In the games that the Greeks would enjoy, there was a judge that would sit near the finish line to be able to judge who the victor was. From this vantage point, the seat being higher than the runners, the judge would be able to properly judge who won the race.

As we think about the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, we need to have this second picture in mind. This judgment isn’t about Jesus judging whether we are going to heaven or not. This judgment is about rewards.

So when does this judgment happen? It occurs after the rapture. The rapture is when God takes His church out of the world and each saint (disciple of Jesus), whether dead or living, who has died in Christ, will be raised to be with Jesus forever. When we are raised to be with him forever, our mortal bodies become immortal, our perishable bodies become imperishable (1 Corinthians 15). At the rapture comes the resurrection of our bodies which will transform in a flash into the bodies we will have for all eternity – like the body that Jesus had when he was resurrected from the dead.

Luke 14:13-14 - But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

2 Tim 4:8 - Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

1 Cor 4:5 - Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

Notice that Jesus tells us that we will be repaid for our righteous act of helping the poor and friendless at the resurrection. This resurrection comes at the rapture. Also recognize that the Bible tells us that Paul will get his crown of righteousness on That Day. Which day? The day of his appearing, which is the rapture. Finally, we see that the Bible tells us that judgment will come when the Lord comes. He will look into our hearts and know what is there and at that time, we will receive praise. So at that time, when Jesus comes back to take us to be with him forever, we read that he will look into our hearts, give us praise, reward us with the crown and repay us for our righteous deeds. It becomes apparent that directly after the Rapture, we will be at the Bema Seat for the judging of our actions and the handing out of our rewards.

So what does the Bible actually say about the Bema seat judgment?

Romans 14:10-12 You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. 11It is written:
   " 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
   'every knee will bow before me;
      every tongue will confess to God.' " 12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Rev 22:12 Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.

In each of these, we see that we will all have to give an account for what we have done. It is important to reiterate here that this judgment is not about salvation. The things we do will not get us into heaven or keep us from heaven. The Bible is very clear about how we get to heaven – by the Grace of God, through our faith in Jesus – believing that Jesus came from Heaven and died for our sins, that he became the sacrifice that would end all sacrifices and paid for our sins so that we wouldn’t have to pay for them ourselves. Since we don’t have to pay for our sins, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, we know that this judgment cannot be for salvation.

We see that though we will give an account – or as we read earlier, that Jesus will look into our hearts – we will experience some temporary sadness and guilt. Guilt that we didn’t do what we now know that we were supposed to, we didn’t act like we should have, we didn’t serve as we needed to. But we know this is temporary because the Bible also tells us that in the new heaven and new earth, we will have no sorrow and that we will shed no tear. So although we will recognize that we should have done better when we are judged at the Bema seat, we can take comfort in knowing that our sadness over our lack of effort or love is only for a short time.

Let’s read what the Bible actually tells us of this judgment, so that we better understand what will happen.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 -   By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

What we learn here is that there is a single foundation – Jesus Christ. If our faith is based on anything else – our abilities, our love for others, our good deeds – we have built on a foundation that is not solid – it is like sinking sand. It will crack and break. If our foundation is not solely on Christ, then we are not truly Christians, we are not truly disciples of Jesus. However, assuming our foundation is Christ, then we learn that we have choices as to what we build upon that foundation. We can build with sticks or hay or stubble or we can build with gold or silver or precious stones. In English, this means that we can do the work of Jesus through our own power or through the power of the Holy Spirit. When we do it on our own, then we are building with sticks. If we can do it, it probably isn’t that impressive. Real great work needs to be done by stepping out in faith and recognizing that we cannot do it but only God can do it and that when we step out and do something that only God can do, then when we are successful in this thing, we know that it wasn’t us but was God. When we do this, God rewards us. This is what is meant by building with gold, silver and precious stones. Anyone can build on their own power – but what can you do in the Power of God?

At the Beam seat judgment, it is like fire is being set to whatever we built. When the fire burns, the wood, hay and stubble will burn up. It will cease to exist – as if it was never there. But the gold, silver and precious stones, they will still be there. This is like our reward. The more of these we build with, the greater our reward. If all we build with is sticks and hay, we are still saved, but we will not have a great, or any, reward.

The takeaway from this is that we need to recognize that we will be judged by Jesus. He will look at our hearts and our works and he will judge whether we trusted in Him to help us live our lives or whether we just went about our lives doing our own thing, the way we wanted. We need to make sure that we are living the way He wants us to live, to step out in faith and to trust Him to take care of whatever we are doing.

What are our rewards for doing this? The Bible teaches us that there are several different rewards that we might get: We might get crowns. We are told about the crown of righteousness, the crown of life and the crown of Glory. We also are promised treasure. Jesus told us not to store up our treasures here on earth but to store up our treasures in heaven. When we do things with eternity in mind, Jesus rewards us with treasure for eternity. Jesus also rewards us with commendations – “well done good and faithful servant”. Finally, we are promised Special Responsibilities and Authorities if we show that we are capable of handling our responsibilities here on earth. Some of these responsibilities might be helping to reign with Christ, ruling over nations, judging the angels. These are all things that the Bible tells us we may do, but these responsibilities are given to those who take their 2 talents and come back with 2 more. It isn’t enough just to bring back what God gave you. And the only way you can return with the additional talent is by trusting in the Holy Spirit to lead you and to take care of you when you step out in faith and do something that only God could have done.

This takes us to The White Throne Judgment. What is this judgment? We need to read Revelation 20:11-15 - Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

As we read this, we learn that the White Throne judgment is for salvation as well as deeds. We see that there are two books that are opened: A book of deeds and a book of life. In the Book of Life, the names of those who are saved are written. As we know, the only way a name can be written in this book is by trusting in Jesus for their eternal life. The moment someone accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior, their names are in the Book of Life. Who would these people be? Since the church has been taken up at the Rapture, these can only be people who have accepted Jesus after the Rapture. This means that they must be people who have trusted in Jesus through the Millennium. The Millenium is the period when Jesus actually reigns on the Earth prior to the White Throne judgment. He will reign for 1000 years. At the end of this time, there is one final battle with Satan and those who opposed Jesus and those who are with Jesus at this time have their judgment now. As did the rest of us, they will have their works judged based on what is written in the Book of Deeds, but even if they didn’t do a single thing for Christ, they will receive salvation because it is not their works that get them into eternal life, but that their names were in the Book of Life (which is written in when they trusted in Jesus for salvation).

However, for everyone else – whose names are not written in the Book of Life, then this Judgment is all about Salvation – or the lack of it. Since they never accepted Jesus as their Lord, as their Savior, as the only way that they could get to heaven – since they thought throughout their entire lives that they either could get to heaven by themselves or that there was no hell or that it didn’t matter – they will now bow their knees to the God who created the universe and recognize that Jesus really is the Lord of the Universe, whether they had believed it before or not. And after that recognition, they will then be condemned to eternity separated from God in the place that is called the Lake of Fire.

For these people, their deeds will work against them.

Psalm 28:4 - Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back upon them what they deserve.

Psalm 62:12 - and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.

Romans 2:6 - God “will give to each person according to what he has done.”

Rev 2:23 - I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

We see that God will pay back those who do good with great rewards and those who do evil with great punishment. Once again, salvation is based on our belief in Jesus as our Savior but whether we believe or not, the extent of our punishment or rewards are based on our deeds on earth while we were alive.

Meanwhile, it is Jesus who sits in the Throne.

Acts 17:31 - For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

John 5:21 - For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.

So who will be at the Great White Throne judgment? Those who didn’t believe, those who mocked, the lukewarm “Christians” whom Jesus spits out of his mouth, the atheists and agnostics who refused to believe even though God gave them so many signs. The Hindu, Muslims, Buddhists and all the other followers of other religions who put other Gods in the place of Jesus. The Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Scientists and all other cults that denigrate who Jesus is and change his words and his heart. Those who attended church every week and never fully gave their lives to Christ. Those pastors and teachers who went to seminary for all the wrong reasons, taught people a gospel other than the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. Religious people who knew every rule and regulation but didn’t know Jesus. Those who sat in church, prayed and sang songs and fellowshipped with real Christians but never showed any fruit themselves, because after all, the Bible tells us that we will know them by their fruit, that they will know us by our love and that many will say, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons and perform miracles?” and Jesus will say, “I never knew you.”

The White Throne judgment will result in all of these people being thrown into the Lake of Fire. This Lake of Fire is where Satan and his demons will be as well. It will be a place where there will be separation for God, where there will be gnashing of teeth and weeping. It is a place of both fire and darkness. Fire for the heat and discomfort that will exist for all eternity and darkness for the fear and the lack of love and comfort that will be experienced.

And so we end this message with the understanding that there are two important judgments that will occur in the End Times – the Bema Seat where disciples of Jesus will have their rewards given to them and the White Throne where unbelievers will accept the consequences of their actions. We need to work to do those things that God is calling us to do – no matter how uncomfortable, how impossible it might be. By doing so, we build on the foundation of Jesus Christ with gold, silver and precious stones. We also need to work to spread the Gospel message of Jesus Christ and the truth of the judgment to come before it is too late. There is no second chance and there is no other opportunity for those who have never heard to be saved. God has given this task to us. We need to do it with all our strength while there is still time. Those people are depending on us.

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Last modified: Sept 27, 2009

The Ark Church - Ronkonkoma, Suffolk County, NY - A non-denominational church for Jesus Christ