 | Pastor Dave grew up in northern New Jersey in a very diverse cultural area. He attended Central College in Pella, Iowa received a BA in sociology and psychology. He was an offensive guard for their NCAA Div III National Championship team in 1974. In speaking for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he sensed a call to full time ministry. Meeting is future wife Sandy at Central, went to Michigan to finish her college while Dave started Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan. Dave married Sandy in 77 and completed his Masters of Divinity degree in 78. Pastor Dave’s first church was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, home of the George Washington Bridge. Their three children were born there and he also served as a Police and Fire Chaplain for the city. In February 1991, they came to Wichita to start Harvest Community Church. In 2006, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Covenant Theological (Presbyterian) Seminary in St Louis. During that year he gained a daughter-in-law with now 2 grandsons of 3 years and 6 months old. Besides Pastoring at HCC for the past 20 years, he has been Director of the SCSD & WPD Police Chaplains for 11.
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Religion
2010-10-01 11:45:00
The particular and final judgments
Answer: What a challenging question from our questioner but as I read the scriptures, the state of a person does not change after death. The judgment that begins at death signifies the importance God has put on this life and the responsibility we have now. The finality of the judgment is due to God’s time and culmination of all things. The intermediate state (the state between the individual’s death and the final judgment) keeps all of the dead and the living in waiting on Him, the Sovereign God of the universe to evidence what He said is true and that He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. That He will end it as Lord of all. The intermediate state is not for the unbeliever to get a second chance.
The Bible has a lot to say about God’s judgment here on earth because this life is important and what you do and believe here means much. Right in the beginning of time God’s judgment comes upon mankind in the form of suffering and death because of Adam and Eve’s original sin (Genesis 3:16-19). All throughout the Old Testament we see it in all of mankind with Noah (Genesis chapters 6-8), Babel (11) and Sodom and Gomorrah (19). We also see it personally with Cain after he killed Abel (4), Hophni and Phinehas were both killed for their sinful and rebellious ways (#1 Samuel 4:11; 3:13). This is a judgment that is seen as a present reality because God is the ruler of the earth, the just creator of the earth, who strives with man as a gracious God but also is just which calls also for His judgment.
There is also eternal judgment for all mankind. This eternal judgment is resolved for believers at the point of conversion, when a person receives Christ and accepts Him as Savior and Lord. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24). The believer is declared righteous before God. (Romans 5:1) At that moment of regeneration or of being born again, the believers name is written in the Lambs book of Life (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 21:27) as an adopted child of God (Romans 9:4; Ephesians 1:5). The unbeliever continues to live under the judgment as Jesus says in John 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Now few details are given about the intermediate state but what we see in the scriptures is that the soul is without the body and the believers are in the conscious joyous presence of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; Revelation 14:13). The unbelievers, however, await the resurrection in the state of suffering already (Luke 16:23). We know it is a conscious existence as is shown in Jesus’ parable of the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Some groups point out this to mean “soul sleep” but that can’t be because they are consciously existing and the unrighteous dead are kept in prison (1 Peter 3:19). If they are unconscious do they need a prison? Others suggest “purgatory” but there is no passing over from one condition or another after death. Final judgment or redemption settles what has already begun at the time of death (Hebrews 9:27).
The Final Judgment comes at the final consummation of the world, after the intermediate state, when Christ returns and will judge all (Hebrews 12:23) and “… God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom” (2 timothy 4:1). A clear understanding of the relationship with the Father and Jesus Christ at the end is given in Acts 17:31 where it says, “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
The reason for the final judgment will not be to see the quality of character but to just disclose it and assign each person their eternal place for their trust or lack of trust in God. Believers will be judged not with unbelievers. The believer will be judged not for salvation because he/she already has it but rather to appraise their works (2 Corinthians 5:10). On the other hand the unbeliever will stand before the Great White Throne to be judged and cast into the lake of fire along with Satan who goes first (Revelations 20:10-15).
That is why the Bible calls us to grab a hold of the salvation offered so we can escape this eternal doom. There is immediacy to it, “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). Are you sure your name is written in the book of life? Have you trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior? It’s His book. It’s His pen filled with His blood and hand that can be the only one to write your name in that book. Don’t be left off of His roster! Don’t be banking on second chances after you leave this earth. “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). Grateful He wrote mine in the book back in 1969. How about you? Pastor Dave
