Is God judging the whole world now?
What about the billions who have died without ever hearing of Jesus Christ?
Are they lost forever? The Last Great Day reveals the answers.
Just after the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles comes another Festival that lasts for one day.
This eighth day, a Holy Day (Lev. 23:34-36), is called in the New Testament "the last day, that great day of the feast" (John 7:37).
Do you know what this "Last Great Day" pictures in God's great master plan? The meaning of the Last Great Day is tremendously significant!
The great deception
One of the greatest deceptions Satan the devil has foisted upon this world is that God is now trying desperately to save all mankind.
The vast majority of Christians hold that, unless a person believes in God, accepts Jesus Christ as personal Savior or repents of sin during this lifetime, he will be sentenced, immediately after death, to "hell," a place of everlasting torment.
Those who do manage, during their lifetimes, to somehow "get saved" waft off to "heaven," a place of vague, eternal bliss, after they die.
In other words, all are to be judged immediately after death by God, the great Judge of all (Heb. 12:23), who will supposedly reward the "good" with heaven and the "bad" with hell. If one does not know and obey God during this mortal life, but dies in sin, he is forever lost — doomed for all eternity!
But is this true, according to God's Word? What is God's judgment really all about?
God the great Judge
The apostle Paul wrote:
"But why dost thou judge thy brother? . . . for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore" (Rom. 14:10-13).
Why must we all appear before Jesus Christ? "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (II Cor. 5:10).
What does "judgment" mean in the Bible?
Many Christians mistakenly believe that God's judgment has only to do with judging past deeds. According to this view, God's judgment is not an ongoing period of trial and testing, but a definite time when sentence is meted out for past actions.
The Bible uses the word judge in two senses: 1) to judge can mean to sit in judgment of someone who commits a certain act, or 2) to judge can mean to rule or govern.
So when we read about God judging man, we must determine whether God is passing judgment on man's past deeds or whether He is judging man's present, ongoing conduct. And we need to know as well when God's judgment takes place. Is there only one time of judgment, or does God's judgment take place in several phases?
God's plan of salvation for all mankind is revealed through His annual Holy Days! And the matter of when the whole world will be judged is explained, in part, by the Last Great Day.
God simply is not now seeking to save the world.
At this time He is only offering salvation to His Church — that Body of believers He has called out of the devil's deceived world (the Greek word ekklesia, translated "church" in the New Testament, means "called-out ones"). All the rest of humanity have been blinded by Satan, the god of this world (Rev. 12:9, II Cor. 4:4).
Why does God allow Satan to blind the world? Isn't it necessary that everyone know the real Jesus Christ? After all, no one can be saved without accepting Christ as his personal Savior:
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
Christ said, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" (John 10:9) and "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).
God has, for the time being and for a good purpose, given the world over to Satan, that mankind might taste of Satan's way of get, of hate, of lust, greed and vanity — that man may learn once and for all that sin does not pay! Satan's way is the way of unhappiness and death.
Adam and Eve rejected God's way in the Garden of Eden, and God cut them off from Him so they could go their own way — actually Satan's way — and write the results of that decision in the miserable pages of human history.
Now is simply not God's time for the masses to understand the truth. Salvation is not now available to anyone except those few God calls for special purposes.
God, according to His great, wise master plan, has ordained three separate judgment periods in which He will offer salvation to all mankind.
The first period of judgment
After Adam and Eve rebelled against their Creator and chose the way of Satan, God drove them out of the Garden of Eden and barred them and their children — all mankind — from access to eternal life (Gen. 3:22-24).
But when the right time came, God sent Jesus Christ to die for the sins of all mankind, and ordained that Christ found the Church of God, which is composed of the Spirit-filled members of the spiritual Body of Jesus Christ.
Once God opens a person's mind to His truth and gives the person His Holy Spirit, that person is held accountable for his actions from that moment forward. In other words, God begins judging that person.
That's why we are told, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house [Church] of God" (I Pet. 4:17).
Judgment in the true sense did not begin with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Judgment first began with God's Church.
Spiritual salvation was nowhere offered to any group of people as a whole in Old Testament times. Of course, however, God did call the prophets of old for special jobs, and they form part of the foundation of the New Testament Church of God (Eph. 2:20).
When Jesus Christ returns to this earth, the members of His Church, both those living and those who have died, will be made immortal. That moment in history will end this first period of judgment.
God's second judgment period
Christ's return will herald the beginning of Christ's 1,000-year rule on earth, pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles. At that time Satan will be bound and removed from the scene (Rev. 20:1-3), and Christ will establish His wonderful Kingdom on this earth.
The resurrected saints of God, then made immortal spirit beings, will rule on earth with Christ, helping Christ judge the earth, during the Millennium (verses 4-6).
Daniel prophesied of this time when "the Ancient of days [Christ] came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom" (Dan. 7:22).
Furthermore, says Daniel: "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him" (verse 27).
This refers to the time when Christ and His saints will judge all nations on this earth. During this period human beings, under the rule of God's government, will be given the opportunity to choose God's way of life, receive God's Holy Spirit, develop God's character and be changed into spirit-born members of God's Family.
"And he [the Messiah] shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness" (Ps. 9:8).
Yes, Jesus Christ and His resurrected, then glorified saints will together judge (here meaning to rule or govern) all nations on this earth for 1,000 years. Only then shall the earth have peace at last.