Say what? Christians’ view of judgment may be more important than what really happens. How is that possible? Actually, it’s quite easy to say or to write. But here’s the thing – I even believe it. I’m one of those people who believed, before I was old enough to “be taught” otherwise – that God was good and He really loved me, in a way my earthly father never would, could, or did. Then I learned to be afraid of God – to not trust Him – and that not only was He out to get me, but He was taking every opportunity to do just that. Judgment was scary – even if I somehow managed to be one who would make it to Heaven!
A minimalist and powerful visual metaphor of the fears many Christians have about our judgment. This looks and feels scary. If we truly believe, there’s no need for fear. We’re already saved.
Eventually, I reached a point, in my early twenties, where I wanted to – and did – try to run away from God as fast and as far as I could get.
But there’s a problem with that. There’s no Jesus.
Uh oh. I tried going back to church a few times, but there – so I thought – was God with his giant-sized human-swatter. It wasn’t a Jonah-type experience, but I did eventually get pulled back in.
Trusting God again was very, very difficult.
And now – here I am, about to write about “Christians’ view of judgment may be more important than what really happens”. Guess why I think our view of judgment may be more important than what really happens at that judgment? FEAR and a lack of TRUST.
Christians’ view of judgment may be more important than what really happens
If we don’t have enough trust in God, if we think we need to be afraid of Him, like I used to be and so many people still are – afraid of judgment even though we’re Christians – something’s off. How can a loving God essentially torture us at judgment? And yet, in our minds, that’s what many of us expect. I believe we need to get past that. And not just on the judgment event – but on so many things. But today, the topic is judgment.
Here’s the thing. If we have a fear of, let’s say, God showing us every sin we committed while we were alive, and then making us account for every one of them – how does one not feel fear? If you don’t believe that – stay with me here – because a lot of people do believe it, because it’s what they’ve been taught.
And here’s the problem. We’re called to make disciples after we’re baptized. In other words, we’re called to all be disciples. What kind of view of God will we present when we reach out to other people? We’ll present the view we hold for ourselves. And it will include fear. A lack of trust.
And people we talk with will get that. How many non-Christians will want to follow us into Christianity if we hold, and give them, a view of God that lacks full trust and contains fear? Sure, we could pretend we have full trust in God and we’re not afraid of Him in any way. But that’s known as a lie. That just seems wrong, doesn’t it? And even if we do lie, it’s a lie that will be uncovered, rather quickly. What do you think that will do to the view of God people learned from us when they find out we lied? Sure, if we didn’t lie – they wouldn’t convert. But – either way – everyone loses.
If we talk with Christians – and we find out some others don’t have this fear of God, they trust Him, and they fully believe there’s no concern about Judgment and that it will be a celebration – as some verses say – but maybe not all of them? Then what? What would you do? Try to convince them they’re wrong and they should be afraid? Just accept what they said – keeping your fears locked up inside, where they probably fester and get even stronger. Until we walk away – or follow my path and run away? Or, will you check it out?
Well, I’m inviting you to check it out.
Are you ready to explore judgment from a Biblical view that includes Hebrew, Greek, and context?
Yes, we need to look at the Hebrew and Greek words, because they reveal things our English Bibles don’t. And we need to review context, because pulling out a single verse is almost always dangerous and leads to misunderstandings and misinterpretation. I’ll keep it simple – no grammar, no tenses, just a brief explanation of what the Hebrew and Greek words meant when they were first said. And we’ll go back to the time when the Good News of the Gospel was truly good news, without fear.
This sounds like a heavy topic, doesn’t it? What happens at the judgments for Christians and non-Christians? Would you believe, it came from a question that someone asked in a Bible Study class this past Sunday morning? It wasn’t even about judgment! I was talking about “How does the church in Ephesus, from Revelation, go from having Paul as a founder, to Jesus telling them they’re about to lose their status as a church, to all of a sudden finding out they still have a chance to eat from the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God? And then the question came up about Christian judgment.
I encourage asking questions, even if they aren’t directly involved. Why? Because if someone has a question, doesn’t ask, then they’ll be thinking about the question – which obviously won’t be answered – and they’ll totally miss what the rest of us are going over. Besides which, when the question is asked, there’ll be at least one other person breathing a sigh of relief that someone asked, because they wondered the same thing! So ask.
By the way, the class is made up of a range of people, from relatively new believers to long-time believers. Also, one of the things I stress is that there are varying beliefs on how to interpret the Bible. I try to explain the different mainstream ones, and sometimes the extremes, to make a point of where to be careful about what we believe. I also say what I personally believe and what our denomination believes. After all that though, it’s important for each of us to know why we believe what we believe – even if it’s different from the denomination – because it’s important that we own our own faith. This topic of judgment really brings that home, because no one’s going to be there from the local church or the denomination with us at judgment.
Well, it got asked. We ended up taking the whole time on that. And 15 minutes after that. Plus – it could’ve gone longer.
What happens at the judgments for Christians and non-Christians?
It certainly wasn’t something I was expecting. Not even close. Thank the Holy Spirit, I was actually researching a fair amount of this for a different topic this past week. But no way was I ready to go that long or deep on this – not today.
So, after a quick lunch, I decided to do some research on what we went over. See if I said anything incorrect. See if I left out anything important. And the one I was least prepared for – check on alternative interpretations of what various Bible passages say about the judgments.
I decided to do the initial research by way of the Faithlife/LOGOS AI agent that comes with my electronic library – and gives me information from their entire library of over 28,000 books. It requires asking the questions the right way, checking the responses, then either push back, or continue to guide the conversation.
As usually happens, I begin as if I know little to nothing – although when dealing with AI it’s really important to know more than just a little, since they aren’t always, shall we say, infallible?
1. A series on Christian Judgment
After completing the AI conversation, since it produced so much information in a very usable way and order, I decided to write it up. It’s 13 questions and answers. Doing it as one article would be way too long – even for me. 🤣
So, this is Part 1 of What happens at the judgments for Christians and non-Christians?
Below is the question to be asked in each of the subsequent pieces of the series. Since it’s all from a real Bible Study class, I included enough of an explanation of why each question was asked to allow you to follow along.
BTW – this is part 1 – so the first item below is part 2.
2. Does God remember all of our sins or not – if we’re believers?
This wasn’t the first question, but it was the one that got into territory that I wasn’t prepared to do today. So, I’m beginning here, since it was something for which I had to look up a passage to even begin to answer.
❓ The Bible says God forgets our sins. It also talks about accounting for everything we did during judgment. These two concepts appear to be in conflict – when it comes to believers. Questions arise such as: does God remember our sins until after our judgment? Is the reckoning for sins only for non-believers? Does it turn out to be “welcome to Heaven – but first let’s go over everything you did wrong during your life”, and this after spending some amount of time in paradise after physical death? Do beliefs vary by denomination or other theological differences?
This was a composite of several questions that came up on the topic. The issues of (1) does God remember or not and (2) whether the believing Christian judgment was the same as the non-believer judgment were big. I knew my own beliefs – but wasn’t ready to speak for alternative beliefs. So, this was important for me to dig into.
3. What do passages about God not remembering our sins mean if we’re still reminded of them at judgment?
❓ That’s not quite what I meant. Understanding there’s no judgment in paradise, it seems off that we have passages like: • Jeremiah 31:34: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” • Hebrews 8:12: “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” • Hebrews 10:17: “Then he adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ ” • Isaiah 43:25: “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
As you can see, LOGOS misinterpreted the first question. I started to type in passages where it appears to say God doesn’t remember our sins – true believers – so how can they still come up at the Christian believer’s judgment?
4. The previous answer doesn’t get to the point – let’s try Paul’s life as an example
❓Given:
The apparent conflict dissolves when you recognize that “remembering sins” and “evaluating works” address different questions. God’s promise to forget sins means He will never use them against believers for condemnation. Simultaneously, believers will give account of their deeds—but this accounting concerns stewardship and faithfulness, not guilt or damnation.
— let’s use Paul as an example. Will Paul have to account for his time as a Pharisee, including the stoning of Stephen, as part of judgment, and have to account for it – or will it be rewards for what He did after becoming a follower of Jesus? In other words, when things from our life are set on fire, only the good survives, is it deemed to be a blow by blow of our lives – or just a view of what survived?
This didn’t come up during the class. I added it here in order to try again to get LOGOS AI to address the previous question directly. The issue is still whether or not believing Christians will be presented with and have to account for every win we committed in our lives.
5. That last reply is getting us closer to a loving God
Sometimes I like to include just general statements. It gives the AI a chance to bring in things I haven’t, agree with me, or disagree. It’s a free-for-all. Sometimes it’s helpful – sometimes it’s not.
❓ That sounds much more like a loving and merciful God than one that at least some people expect, including me a few years ago – who forces us to review our entire life – good, bad, and ugly.
This one was useful. “genuine theological disagreement” was what I got back for the reply. Always good stuff for this kind of research.
6. # 5 led to this follow-up
❓ Who – or what theologies – are behind the different views? I noticed the sources you used changed from question to question, so I’m wondering if there’s a particular grouping of theologies across the differences in this last response.
It’s important to pay attention to literally everything in an AI response. Yes – the actual reply matters. But so do the sources – not just from the previous question – but to every question so far. Patterns can show up – does it answer some with one denomination and others with different ones? The same is true for theological differences – which was a key here. If I get a reply back from someone I don’t know – I look them up – all with the intent to follow patterns. Even the lack of a denomination, theology, or other author background differences can be important. As can the absence or presence of too many history or science authors – depending on the topic.
7. How do mainstream protestant denominations view the revelation of sins at judgment?
At this point I wasn’t sure if mainstream Protestants were appropriately represented. The issue, as with here, can come down to Evangelical authors. (Sorry – don’t mean to offend anyone.) I want to know about my sources, as I said. The timeframe they publish in is also relevant. In the case of Evangelical authors, their viewpoints have significant changes between the early and mid 1900’s. And then again with the current influential Evangelical pastors and authors.
❓ How do mainstream protestant denominations view the revelation of sins at judgment?
What showed up in the response wasn’t about a difference between Protestants and Evangelicals – which is fine. What it did get into was the differences between “mainstream Protestant denominations officially teach and what they actually emphasize in practice“. This is important.
8. What Bible verses/passages are used to support views?
This was a huge piece of what I was after
❓ That’s why I’m researching this – to deal with that difference. When it comes to the denominational doctrine – what Bible passages/verses do they use to support their positions?
It came back with mostly verses I expected – but some additional ones I hadn’t identified up to this point.
It also got more into the disagreements.
9. Get more details on Hebrews 4:13 and Ecclesiastes 13:14
This request – “9. Get more details on Hebrews 4:13 and Ecclesiastes 13:14” – came directly from the previous response.
❓ I understand the security of salvation. Can you go deeper into: “The passages Hebrews 4:13 and Ecclesiastes 12:14 are sometimes cited to support comprehensive divine knowledge, though theologians interpret their application to believers’ judgment differently.”
I got three distinct views back in the response. This was huge.
10. Trying to get a feeling for a major part of how I write and teach
I had most, if not all, of what I was after now.
The next task was to see how all of this lined up with one of the things I emphasize when I write or teach a class.
❓ There’s something I often ask people in a class – (1) Do you want to believe? (2) What do you believe about God, with a discussion of a disagreed on issue, like this one – and where does that put your belief on a spectrum of God potentially being the author of evil on one end – and God being just a passive viewer, which can also be viewed as evil, with an understanding that somewhere in the middle is probably the right place to be – at least as a believer. While these extremes don’t fit into that broad spectrum – are there views about the three differences you just outlined that might place them in this spectrum, especially when they evaluate each other’s positions?
It confirmed my approach as useful – and then put the three views on the spectrum laid out in #9.
11. Seeking additional confirmation that I understood what was presented above
This is always important. If we do a lot of work with AI, being careful all along the way – and carefully guiding it to get answers to our questions, but then misunderstand the responses – we’ve got nothing, maybe worse than nothing, if we send people off in the wrong direction.
Because of the way AI generally works today, and especially this particular one, it also forces the AI to go back and validate itself in the process.
❓ That’s actually very much what I expected. This sequence we’re going through now began from a discussion in class this morning – and I wanted to guide you through in this order of questions to try to replicate it. One more question came up – the judgment for non-believers. I assume this is the one with enough details, or all details, to ultimately fulfill the prophecy – every knee will bow before me. The believers – we’ll kneel and already know why, because we love God. For the unbelievers, they need to “learn why”. Does that fit in with mainstream beliefs?
Confirmation received.
12. One more request for confirmation, with a different twist to the question
❓ This distinction is another reason why I feel from the way I interpret Scripture – and honestly also hope is true – that we don’t need a full recounting – although I hadn’t considered the sins for which we didn’t repent – and even if it was a full recounting, it’s certainly not going to lead me to tell God – Oh sorry, I don’t want Heaven anymore.
Confirmation on this one as well. To me, this one’s important – not for my own view, but for someone who holds one of the other views on accounting for our sins.
13. Did I leave out any question or issues that I should’ve brought up?
I frequently ask a question like this at the end, when doing this much research. It’s both wide-ranging and deep. It’s important to realize that we don’t know everything – there may be things we forget – lots of reasons to ask, “did I miss anything important?”
It’s yet another chance to force AI to review itself, what I asked, and did I understand you correctly.
One last reality check. And even then, when doing the write-up, more things will show up to research and explain.
❓ Excellent session. Is there anything else that should be included along the lines of what we just went over?
Nothing important left out. But it did give areas for follow-ons and additional items that may come up during a write-up or discussion of these issues.
You now have all the background. And the questions to be answered.
However, with 13 questions, it’s a lot to digest in one sitting. It’s a lot to write in one sitting.
So, I’ll be writing it up, one question at a time. It will take a while. There’s only one of me – I have two sites – and there’s other things being written as well. You can check back once in a while to see if the next one’s published. Or, you can subscribe to this site using the subscription block below – then you’ll get an email when something new is available.
This series is dedicated to the amazing people in the Bible Study class I have the privilege to lead. And to the Pastor who allows me to teach things like this.
I never thought I’d lead Bible Study. I tried to avoid it. I’m so happy I wasn’t able to do that. And I’m so blessed by the people in the class. They push me with the desire to learn more. They support me with their prayers and love. Their hunger to learn, ask questions, share their own thoughts and lives – are what makes this even possible. And the willingness of everyone to allow the Holy Spirit to work in them makes it what it is.
We talk about storing up treasures in Heaven, and about having real joy in this life. This is it. After a very successful career in IT – this is the “job” of a lifetime.
Thank you so much Lord – and to all of you.
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
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