October 31
Ezekiel 1-3
Psalm 119:65-72
Proverbs 26:11-12
Hebrews 9:11-28
Judgment
“But He has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by sacrifice of Himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” Hebrews 9:26-28 NIV
Verse 27 is a good reminder for us that one day we are all going to face judgment. The Bible is very clear. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether good or evil.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV) One day we must all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Matthew 25:31-46 and Revelation 10:11-15 give more detailed descriptions of what the judgment will be like. Our destiny for eternity is determined by what we do here on Earth. It is not determined by whether we are good or bad. We are all bad. If that is the criteria, none of us will get to Heaven. The one and only criteria is whether we accepted Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, as our Savior. Every person who has ever lived, will stand before God and at that time, judgment will be pronounced. If they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior while they were alive, then His righteousness covers them, and they are ushered into Heaven for eternity. If they rejected Christ while they were alive, they will be judged by their deeds and everyone is guilty of sin, so they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire for eternity. There is no opportunity to change their mind after they die. Philippians 2:10-11 declares that at the end of time, “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (ESV) There will come a time when everyone will acknowledge that He is Lord. The truth will be revealed. Satan’s lies will be exposed, but it will be too late. Those who rejected Jesus while they were alive are destined to Hell.
There are several popular ideas that Satan has devised to deceive people into believing that they don’t have to choose Christ now. The idea of reincarnation is refuted by Hebrews 9:27. It clearly says that people are appointed to die once and then face judgment. We do not come back to life repeatedly until we get it right. There is nothing in the Bible that suggests that is the case. Annihilation is the idea that those who do not make it to Heaven simply have their souls annihilated and they disappear. They cease to exist. This may be comforting to some, but it is not biblical. Another idea that is popular in Roman Catholicism is the idea of purgatory. It is based on the book of 2 Maccabees and church tradition that says there is a state of “limbo” in which souls that don’t initially make it to Heaven stay for a while until they finally make it into Heaven. There is no biblical support for this. Luke 16:19-31 directly refutes this notion. There is another lie that has become popular in Christian churches that is perhaps more dangerous than any of the others. It is the idea that God loves us so much that He will not send anyone to Hell so that ultimately, we all make it to Heaven. This is a heretical lie. I cannot state this firmly enough. If no one was going to be sent to Hell, then there was no reason for Jesus to die on the cross and be resurrected. If there is no Hell, there was no reason for Jesus to come to Earth in the first place. This is an insidious lie. Satan does not want anyone to believe the truth that they are destined to spend eternity in Hell if they do not accept Jesus, so he has made up lots of lies about alternative versions of the afterlife. As believers, we must ground our beliefs in biblical truth, not popular ideas and trends. I know this is a sober topic, but perhaps fitting for Halloween. Haunted houses and horror movies provide temporary thrills, but the reality of an eternity in Hell is really scary. We do not want anyone to have to experience this, so we need to be bold in telling others the truth, so they do not believe Satan’s lies.
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