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The Judgment Seat of Christ LIGHT BRINGS RESPONSIBILITY The Judgment Seat of Christ will be set up when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth - "the Lord Jesus Christ..shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom" - 2nd Timothy 4v1. The judgment will reveal who are righteous and who are wicked in the sight of God and Christ - "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not" - Malachi 3v18. Judgment will be based upon a responsibility to God. Responsibility comes about through a knowledge of the Truth, and this becomes the basis for judgment - "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" - "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light" - John 12v48; 3v19. Those who are ignorant of the Truth are not called personally before the judgment seat of Christ. He that "understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish".."The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead".."And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent".. "They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise" - Psalm 49v20; Proverbs 21v16; Acts 17v30; Isaiah 26v14. The judgment involves the gathering of all those who will have become responsible. When Christ returns most will be dead, though some will still be living. Those who at that time are in the grave will be resurrected and taken to the place of judgment together with those who are still alive - "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" - "(they) shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" - "he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whoseover liveth and believeth in me shall never die" - Daniel 12v2; John 5v29; 11v25,26. The popular "church" teachings (heaven & hell-going) are clearly unscriptural - link to 'mortal'. The most common words translated 'hell' should be rendered 'grave' as in Psalm 31v17 ('sheol) & 1st Corinthians 15v55 ('hades'). Inaccurate biased translations only only serve to perpetuate the errors of the apostate "church" as noted in many of our pages. On several occasions the meaning is symbolic of future judgment, & the destruction of the wicked - cp Malachi 4v1;2nd Thess.1v5-10 - see 'the Lord's day'-7th Vision. |