Monday, November 11, 2013
Psalm 96:13 For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.
THE LAST JUDGMENT
It is traditional near the end of the church year for Christians to consider the Last Judgment. There is a reason we call it the Last Judgment, because God has in the course of history handed down other judgments.
God created humankind on the sixth day of creation. God's perfect creation and perfect creatures didn't stay perfect long. The man and the woman fell by directly disobeying the one command they were given. God judged them and sent them out of the Garden of Eden. The descendants of the man and the woman continued the downward spiral until finally God was sorry, even grieved that he had created humankind (Genesis 6:6).
Thus God judged the world by means of a world-wide flood whose effects are still seen on the face of the earth today. God had mercy on Noah, and upon us all, by delivering him from the flood by means of the ark. In so doing God kept alive the promise that He had made to Adam and Eve to send the Seed of the Woman to undo what Satan had done through temptation.
In History God had made other "micro-judgments." God judged the nation of Israel for its unfaithfulness and idolatry by allowing it to be carried off into captivity by the Assyrians. God judged Judah and Jerusalem for its unfaithfulness by allowing them to be carried off into the Babylonian Captivity.
The Last Judgment will not be a "micro-judgment" but of the "macro" variety like the Flood. The Last Judgment will be the final judgment of God upon sinful humankind. It will also mark the entrance into eternal bliss for the Holy Christian Church.
We who by grace have seen God's salvation in Christ and have come to trust in Him look forward with great joy to coming the Last Judgment.
