There was this cartoon, it was a Dog convention. This friendly pup marches up to another dog and says, "My name is Bad Dog, what is yours?" Although created in God's image, man is expected to please his master and maker (Rev 4:11). Because it is natural for man to do his own thing, many of which are evil in God's sight (Gen 8:21). God finds it necessary to chastise mankind. Even though we become a Christian and strive to put Him first in our lives, we still find ourselves in need of correction from time to time (Matt 6:33). As the Hebrew writer puts it, "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Heb 12:6).
Although it is not "politically correct" in the 21st century, the great Judgment Day of God is part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even in the Old Testament, Solomon (the wisest of the wise) pointed out why the whole duty of man was to fear God and keep His commandments. The reason was because, "For God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecc 12:14).
Jesus warned people, in the Sermon on the Mount of being in danger of the Judgment as well as in other places (Matt 5:21-22; 10:15;11:22, 24). Peter pointed out to Cornelius, as the first Gentile convert, that their commission from Christ was to preach to the people that He was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42).
The Judgment should have the same effect on man today as it did on Felix in the first century. When Peter preached on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix trembled or was terrified (Acts 24:25). Paul points out the fact that in the Judgment, "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 good or bad" (2 Cor 5:10). In the next verse he states, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."
In today's pulpit it is verboten, as well as politically incorrect, to point out, as Paul did, "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after" (1 Tim 5:24). In the first century, Eternal Judgment was considered a foundation doctrine or first principle of the Gospel along with the resurrection of the dead and faith toward God (Heb 6:1-2). When America was great and believed in the God of the Bible, we knew it is appointed for men once to die, and after this the Judgment (Heb 9:27)!
Dale I. Royal, Elk City OK
