A Right to Judge?

Today we come to the next part of the message that I believe I received from the Lord about a week ago.  

Just when you think the world is at peace, I will call you to rise up, take up your cross and enter a battle.  Bring nothing with you, for I have prepared a mighty army that will fight on your behalf.  You are now living in the world’s darkest hour and just before I raise My hand in judgement.  I will smite the nations that do not honor Me.  But you will be spared if you embrace My Truth as your most sacred armament.  Avoid the entanglements of the world, for it will soon pass away.  Watch, and be ready, for then I will come for you. 

I will smite the nations that do not honor Me. 

This past weekend, I read a book entitled, 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese.  This book is a MUST READ for every single living human being on this planet.  Christians, you must read this book, it’s a page turner.  It will literally change your life and how you view people that are lost.  You will instantly become an evangelist.  You will never forget the horrific graphic images that Bill Wiese shares from his own experience in hell (horror movies pale to the terror of hell – at least the suffering on earth ends, in hell it is ongoing).  Bill Wiese makes many references to the existence of hell that are mentioned in the Bible and he also mentions well-respected Christian authors in the references and appendixes.  So I purchased another book he references entitled, One Minute After You Die, by Erwin Lutzer.  Erwin Lutzer is the senior pastor of the Moody Church, an affiliation with Moody Bible Institute, a good sound Bible College.  I am almost through reading his book, another page turner.  For the first time, death, heaven and hell are explained clearly and I now understand more than ever before, the great price Jesus paid to save me from my sins and that I am utterly and completely undeserving (we all are) of His forgiveness and the heaven that awaits me.  Wow, what a powerful book.  

I mention these two books for a few reasons.  The message above in quotations is talking about God’s judgement.  Now in our age of grace and talk of God’s love, when we hear the words (God’s) “judgement,” we may start to feel really uncomfortable.  It’s just not something we want to talk about or think about because it’s not exactly the most uplifting thought for a Monday morning, is it?  But if you feel uncomfortable at this part of the message, please, I urge you to read the above two books.  If you have an e-reader, it will download in a second or less.  I’ve linked their books to their own sites, but you can also find these on Amazon. The reason I urge you to read these two books, is because once you read about the realities of hell, God’s judgement on the earth will seem a kindness.  Also, I believe we need to pray more.  When we are warned of impending judgement, we need to get into our prayer closet and pray like never before.  We need to pray on behalf of the nations that are about to be judged. 

An interesting verse came to me this weekend: 

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  2 Chron. 7:14   

This is a promise!  God honors our prayers. We can pray on behalf of the nations about to be judged and, I believe, God will honor our request.  Let’s take this love we keep talking about and put it to good use in our prayers.   

Does God have a right to judge?  This is an interesting question.  First of all, the word “judge” is mentioned 170 times in the King Version of the Bible (not all in reference to God as judge).  The comforting fact of God is that He is an exact “righteous” judge, and He judges exactly right (i.e. according to His own standard of righteousness).   

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.  2 Tim. 4:8  

If we really get a glimpse into the character of God, and we can only do this by reading the Bible where He reveals Himself, it doesn’t take long before we discover His desire to have fellowship with us (His love), and also to discover His complete intolerance for sin (His wrath).  It all starts in Genesis 3.  Every living thing is cursed until the end of time, and every person is eternally lost without God unless they receive God’s only great provision -- His Son Jesus Christ whom He sends thousands of years later (see Matthew 1 and 2).  There are two notable incidents (although there are others) of God’s judgement in the Old Testament.  The first is the world-wide flood, which occurs only two chapters after the record of the fall of Adam and Eve:

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.  Genesis 6:5-7 

But Noah and his family were spared (see verse 8).  He rewards righteousness (HIS righteousness only, not our own idea) and He punishes sin.  The next notable incident is when God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 and 19.  Once again, God spares the righteous and destroys the unrepentant sinners. 

As for the nations, they are nothing to God in terms of their own conceived power (e.g. they may be wealthy and influential to other nations).  This is how God sees them: 

All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.  To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?  The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.  Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?  It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.  Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.   To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.  Isaiah 40:17-26 

In order to know God more fully (although we will never know everything about Him), and not just His incredible love for us, we must also know the side of Him as Judge and Ruler of all the heavens and earth.  The more we know about God, the more we will reverence Him and the less tolerant we will be of sin, our own and the sin we see all around us.  If He loves righteousness and hates sin, so must we.   

Does God have a right to judge?  Everything is His to begin with, so of course He does.  We are simply guests on this earth, passing through and on our way to an eternal home where we will dwell with God forever (heaven being reserved only for those who have committed their heart and life to Jesus, but all are welcome who do so before they die). 

Thank you for reading and I wish you every blessing.