Judgment Day for Christless Religion! -Greg Albrecht

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Question:  

Based on your teachings, how can I better understand what the Bible teaches about a judgment day in the future?

Response: 

Excellent question. Several thoughts to keep in mind:

The popular religious doctrine of “Judgment Day” is of a future time when all who have ever lived will be in a long line stretching around the world, waiting to appear before God the Father. The idea advanced is that all who have ever lived will have their sins and merits placed on some sort of scale, and if their good deeds outweigh the negative, then they will be allowed entry into the heavenly kingdom of God, based on their righteousness, their good deeds and merits. On the flip side, if bad deeds outweigh good deeds, then folks will be consigned to eternal conscious torment, by God, who is described in the Bible as love, mercy and grace.

A:  First problem:  The very idea of a divine juridical decision based on human merits, determining one’s eternal “destination” is so far opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ that it is at best described as a lie, an enemy of the gospel, and a toxic faith. The “judgment” is rendered by Jesus Christ, for God the Father judges no one (John 5:22) – judgment is based and predicated on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, given freely by God’s grace (Romans 3:19-26).   

B:  Second problem:  Implied in the last sentence of my description of the popular idea of “judgment day” as popularly understood within Christendom, either aided and abetted by religious authorities, or if not, allowed to exist because such a fear-based belief helps religion with its goals — God is love, yet he consigns humans who fail to measure up to eternal, conscious torment?

There are many biblical passages about judgment, whether rendered as a future event, or present or past. For Christ followers, all interpretations of these verses and passages are subject to a Christ-centered cruciform interpretation. Jesus is the means and foundation of judgment and he in fact is the judge.  

That said, some questions we must  ask about those who would speak of a coming judgment during which a God of judgment and wrath will reward sinners for their evil deeds, and good people (we dare not call any human righteous as a result of their own deeds — that is abundantly clear in the gospel) will be rewarded because of what they have done (a heretical assumption that what Christ has done for humans on his cross is meaningless or at the very least devalued and diminished).   

Some summary thoughts about judgment:

1.  Many assume that judgment is given in a divine courtroom not unlike human courtrooms. Big assume and even bigger mistake. We must not assume God is like us and we must not turn the triune Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit into a human activity or solution. That would be idolatry among other things. 
2. God is not a god of wrath, he is not a mad dad, he is not a monster who delights in punishment.  He loves humanity beyond measure, and will always, always forgive, when the forgiveness he offers is accepted. The popular idea of a future judgment presided over by God the Father who is upset, angry and filled with wrath does not include the biblical reality that forgiveness is ever off the table.
3. The teaching of a presumed eternal, conscious torment to which people who fail to pass religious muster will be consigned is light years away from the gospel. Such a teaching emanates from humans, not God. The fabricated teaching of an eternal conscious torment emanates from darkness and sucks all who are negatively impacted and deceived by it into its anti-Christ religious darkness. These teachings are contrary to the love, mercy and grace of God — they are the province of Christless religion, rather than that of Christianity as taught by the gospel of Jesus Christ.    
4. Most of the popular, fear-based ideas of a final judgment presided over by a god of wrath tragically deny and ignore the Cross of Christ. The implications of the Cross, the love of God sent forth into the world, indeed the universe by the Cross of Christ is eternal. The Cross is forever as is the love, grace, mercy, peace and forgiveness of God available then, now and forever. 
5. While no one knows exactly what judgment will be given in the future, we all know the judgment already given in the past on the Cross of Christ, and that he is risen and that same Cross-centered judgment is in fact the heart and core of the gospel proclaimed now, in this present day.  We also know that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever and therefore any deviation from what Jesus has always been is in error.  Perhaps we can better understand a final judgement as being that final action when the devil and all his religion, when religion at large is cast into a lake of fire, so that the New Jerusalem has no need of religion, or a temple or church or synagogue, because God is our temple, we shall forever be with him and he with us.   

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