Final Judgment

Acts 17:30–31 “Now [God] commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead”.

End times prophesy in the Bible is one of the most highly read and studied subjects and Bible Studies on Eschatology are the most well-attended. Why? Because Eschatology is a part of Christian theology concerned with the final events of history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity. The term “eschatology” comes from two Greek terms e[scato" and lovgo" meaning (roughly speaking) “last, end, or final” and “study of,” respectively. Theologically speaking, then, the term eschatology refers to “the study of final things” in the Bible.

Psalm 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.”

In an article that I read, Dr. R.C. Sproul explains that when Friedrich Nietzsche announced that “God is dead” at the end of the nineteenth century, he was not really making a metaphysical statement about the Lord’s existence. Instead, he meant that God was functionally dead in Europe. People had become practical atheists, paying little heed to the God of the Bible in whom most of them professed faith. This practical atheism coincided with the optimistic outlook on humanity’s future that was developing in the wake of great scientific and technological progress. Humanists were proclaiming an end to war, disease, and other ills because mankind now had the tools to channel its inherent goodness into a worldwide utopia that had no need for God.

Hebrews 9:27 “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

World War I put to death much of this godless optimism, but even then, many people were convinced that the war was a fluke, the last gasp of primitive humanity, the “war to end all wars.” A few decades later, World War II destroyed the notion of inevitable human progress for any clear-thinking individual. We continue to live in the shadows of these events and the pervasiveness of humanistic metaphysical naturalism so that a gloom now hangs over Western culture. The problems of drug, alcohol, and sex addiction; secular existentialism, crass materialism; and prevalent nihilism (a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless) all betray a worldview that believes life is meaningless and that we need to do anything we can to avoid thinking about the implications of that horrible truth.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”

Of course, believing that we are cosmic accidents logically ends in the view that life is empty. If we were born without purpose and are moving toward a meaningless future, despair is the only honest response. But try as we might, we cannot shake the sense that we were made with a purpose and that there are things that ought not be done. The notion that we are accountable to someone higher than ourselves just will not go away. Even the most ardent atheist cannot escape his awareness of the final judgment to come.

Matthew 12:35-37 “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Sproul explains that we cannot ever get away from the notion of final judgment fully because God “has put eternity into man’s heart”. We know that the Lord has appointed a day of judgment for all. The question is, are we ready for it? False religions created by mere men believe that we prepare for the final day of judgment by storing up good works, by doing the right things so that when we stand before the Creator, our eternal destiny is determined by our goodness. What they fail to see is that if any of us relies on our own deeds, our only destination will be eternal punishment in Hell. How, then, do we ready ourselves for the last day? We trust in Christ alone, the One in whose perfection we rest for the assurance of eternal life.

John 14:2-6 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” 

Blessing in Christ.