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Summary
There’s a war in Europe, one in the Middle East, and an election in just a few days. “IF the tribulation is imminent, and IF there is a pre-tribulation rapture, I fear I may not be ready.” Someone recently shared that thought with me, and I suspect it may have haunted all of us at some point.
So, what are we so afraid of? The Judgment(s) of God.
While researching for my commentary on the Revelation, I purchased another commentary that included a map of “The End Times.” It reminds me of the game, “Chutes and Ladders.” In the center of the map, and before all hell breaks loose, there is one amazing ladder called “The Rapture.” If you’re “raptured,” you avoid tribulation (So, “in this world you will” NOT “have tribulation”), and you will leave all the lost sheep behind, as well as avoid the Judgment of God.
On the map, there are several judgments, like “The Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats.” If you’ve visited a sick person, you’re a sheep; if you haven’t, you’re a goat. Jesus said something like this in front of the temple, where the Jews had sacrificed sheep and goats for a thousand years, and just before He sacrificed Himself. The next day, He said to Caiaphas, “From now on, you will see the Son of Man… coming on the clouds of heaven.”
John the Baptist warned of “The Judgment of the Wheat and the Chaff.” There is no wheat without chaff or chaff without wheat. The chaff is the outer casing of the wheat; it’s “the outer wheat.”
Jesus warned of “The Judgment of the Wheat and the Tares.” Tares were weeds that looked like wheat. You can’t pull up one without the other; you have to wait for “the judgment at the end of the age.” Oddly enough, according to Paul, “the end of the ages” has already come upon those of us who believe. Well, tares are “false wheat.”
To the far right on the map is the Great White Throne of Judgment. “The dead” are judged by their “works” recorded in “books.” “The living” have already been judged by a Lamb who has written names in another book — so they’re saved, but not by their judgments, but rather the Judgment of the Lamb.
Wouldn’t you like some more “knowledge of Good and evil,” so you can follow the map and avoid all those crazy judgments? According to John — the writer of both the Revelation and the Gospel — there’s only one judgment.
John 3:19, “And this is the judgment: the light…”
My dad issued all sorts of “judgments” growing up. And, for the most part, I trusted (had faith in) his judgments, for I knew that his judgment (singular) was good and life; it was always love. That judgment of grace created faith in me in him.
John 5:22, “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.”
John 8:15, “I judge no one,” said Jesus, the Son.
John 8:26, “I have much to Judge,” said Jesus, the Judgment of the Father
He’s like the Judge who judges by not judging, for He is “The Judgment” (The Light).
John 12:31, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of death he would die (It was on a tree in a garden on the Holy Mountain).”
John 16:15, “All that the Father has is mine; therefore, I said that He (His Holy Spirit) will take what is mine and declare it to you (The Judgment is His . . . !)
John 19:41 “Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden.”
He cried, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know… It is finished.” And “delivered up His spirit.”
That’s “The Judgment;” that’s the Light of the world on that tree. That’s the Word of the Father, who creates, sustains, and holds all things together. That’s reality. That’s the heart of God from “the bosom of the Father,” hanging on a tree in the garden of the sanctuary of your soul. That’s the place where you make judgments or, to be more accurate, the place where the Judgment of God makes you. Your name is Adam.
The cross reveals that we’ve all judged the judge and His judgment, been infected by a lie, and for as long as we remember, have been creating a fortress that is a prison, that we often refer to as “the ego,” what Scripture would call the “old man, false self, flesh, or body of sin and death.” The line between good and evil passes not between people but “through every human heart.”
There is one judgment, and the judgment is one, and yet each one of us is two. And each one of us tends to think that each one of us is one and God is two. When Adam took the fruit, he judged the judge and created another judge — a false judge.
Many in the early church argued that because God is one, He will make all of Adam one, and so of course, He will judge all and save all, for that’s His judgment: “God is Salvation”: Jesus. In the fifth century and under the authority of Rome, Augustine argued that God is Mercy (Relentless Love) and the very opposite of that, what he called “justice” (by that, he meant “retribution”).
Justice is not people getting what they deserve, for what do people have that they did not receive?
Justice is not you getting what you deserve. Justice is God getting what God deserves, which is you in love with Him, having been created in His image . . . Isn’t that His judgment?
God exiled Adam to live in His own judgments. Yet, God went with Adam as a seed, and God brought him back to the Holy Mountain that he could see that even as he had taken the Life of the Good (the Judgment of God) on the tree, God had given and fore-given the Good, which is his Life, which is the Judgment of God from the foundation of the world. And so, Adam began to worship: He judged the judgment with “just judgment” (John 7:24); he said, “Surely this man (Adam) is the Son of God.”
Many years ago, at a conference in Canada, I heard the Lord audibly. He said, “Peter, you don’t love my bride very much, do you?” I suddenly knew that I had gone into the ministry because I hated the church (“They” had “crucified” my dad.) I erupted in a fountain of tears, strangely aware that they were not my tears; they were the Lord’s tears for me — a sinner. And strangest of all, there was absolutely no condemnation, as if I had not known what I was doing.
That night, the Lord literally held me to the floor and revealed that He had always been everywhere loving me; everything good in me was Him, my best friend, in me. I heard Him say, “Stop doubting my love for you.” It felt as if fire was coursing through my veins. I, literally, could not stop praising God; the fountain of tears had turned into a fountain of ecstatic joy. It was absolute “Rapture.”
He’s not done with me yet, but that day, He separated wheat from tares and the chaff from the grain. He walked my sin into the fire (He’s the sin offering), and He spoke my praise to God (He is the burnt offering.) He is the Consuming and Eternal Fire. At one point, I thought, “If He shows me more, I’ll die. And that would be awesome!” It would be the death of death, which is Eternal Life — the Judgment and Commandment of God (John 12:50).
I had judged the Judgment, and it was sin. And now, the Judgment was judging me, and it was Grace. And then, the Judgment was conceived in me, and I began giving birth to the Judgment: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, The Good, The Faith. “I began giving birth . . . ” After all, I am the Bride of Christ — the one that I had not loved very much. And so are you; so is all of Adam.
No one “deserves” God, and yet God deserves all. Never hide from the Judgment of God. It is the Rapture; “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself,” said Jesus, the Judgment of God.