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Revelation 14
6 I saw an angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal Good News to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 7 He said with a loud voice, "Fear the Lord, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!"
the hour of his judgment has come
God is not above being judged. To insist that the judge of the universe will not tolerate anyone judging Him while He is free to pass sentence and condemnation on others, induces immediate suspicion, and rightly so. We are created in the image of God and designed to grow up to become like Him in character. So when we harbor such sinister notions about God being exempt from being judged, yet free to execute judgments on others, that same disposition becomes reflected in our own heart and we become increasingly judgmental of others while blindly imagining we have nothing seriously wrong with our own condition. This is the condition of Laodicea and a symptom of immature perceptions about God that blinds us to our own desperate condition.
Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;' and don't know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; (Revelation 3:17)
I am fully aware that the language in Scripture is full of references to God executing judgments. The question that needs to be examined very carefully is this – what kind of judgments does God do, and even more probing, is God transparent, honest and willing to allow His own actions and motives to be fully investigated and judged? Or to put it another way, what is the difference between our presumptions about the meaning and practice of judgment and what Scripture calls righteous judgment?
I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself. He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called "The Word of God." The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen. (Revelation 19:11-14)
If anyone listens to my sayings, and doesn't believe, I don't judge him. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me, and doesn't receive my sayings, has one who judges him. The word that I spoke, the same will judge him in the last day. (John 12:47-48)
What we have been learning for some time now is that part of what differentiates God's righteous kind of judgment from what we have assumed and practiced as judgment, is the disposition and motives on the part of the ones doing the judging.
Don't judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. (John 7:24)
This is crucial to appreciate and apply to our understanding of judgment, particularly as we go through this final book of Scripture where a lot of judging is going on. Even those who are loyal to God often find it difficult to discern this principle, and we find this at the beginning of the chapter we just quoted highlighting how Jesus, the Word of God, only judges and makes war in righteousness.
After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God: for true and righteous are his judgments. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." (Revelation 19:1-2)
The things expressed in this song may be factual, yet in light of what can be learned from previous chapters, especially regarding the vitally important New Song mindset, the emphasizing God's victory over a most tenacious enemy is not in complete sync with the disposition of the New Song. This is why in verse 5 a voice from the throne invites them to do a restart so that the Song comes out clean and free of all negativity or hint of imposed punishments from God. I believe this is what a true understanding of righteous judgment actually means, for when the sentiments of the New Song become the sole motivation of all our praises for our heavenly Father, the way is prepared for a fuller revelation of God's heart untainted by subtle inferences that have for so long infected our spiritual perceptions.
This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn't come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God. (John 3:19-21)
Light represents the real truth in contrast to our false perceptions, opinions, feelings and assertions about what is real and true. This light originates in a righteousness that is not in tension with the Law, yet is distinct and apart from any righteousness defined by keeping the Law. This has been a point of confusion and endless arguing for centuries, yet it also is directly connected to our confusion about the nature of judgment, for judging and law-keeping are almost always directly linked with each other. Thus an appreciation and understanding of righteous judgment in contrast to judgments based on appearances based on using law in the way we use them, is vitally linked to perceiving and appreciating how God's righteousness is not tied to or defined by His keeping the Law, but rather the Law is a simplistic description of His righteousness, not its source.
But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God's forbearance; to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)
Here we have been brought back full circle to where we began here in the first angel's message about God's judgment. Paul is talking about this righteousness of God completely separate from law as its source, because the main thrust of this whole chapter is about God being exonerated when He Himself is judged. Upon intense scrutiny He does not resist or resent, He will at last be exposed by the light of investigative truth as being just, right, true, faithful, reliable, trustworthy – everything sung about in the praise songs throughout this book that all resonate with the New Song paradigm.
For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God? May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, "That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment." (Romans 3:3-4)
With God there is no corruption, no hidden agenda, no selfishness but only selfless, passionate love that longs for each of us to thrive in that love for our own benefit and to participate in the great dance of joy for which everyone in the universe is created. Love has unlimited power, and the principles that may be observed in science, physics and the laws of nature all reflect parallel principles in the spirit realm. Electrical power is a prime example of the nature of God's love.
Electricity can be delivered safely over long distances by use of high power transmission lines so long as the principles of physics are respected. This is possible by keeping resistance to electrical energy to a minimum in the wires while at the same time using protective resisters to keep it isolated along the way. Having an intelligent awareness of the extreme dangers of high voltage power is extremely important, for if a person gets too close even to the presence of high voltage electrical energy, the potential for extreme harm or even instant death increases exponentially.
The problem involved when working around electrical components is not due to inherent dark motives on the part of electricity itself, but rather the inherent dangers of resistance. There is a key principle involved here which is that when the flow of electrical power is resisted, the result is heat, and when the ratio of power to resistance reaches a certain level the inevitable result is the breakdown and destruction of whatever is resisting. Thus when a person touches a live wire with electrical energy potential present in it, they can experience anywhere from a tingling jolt to a complete frying of their body, dependent on the level of amperage involved. In the case of very high voltage, even coming into close proximity to such equipment can result in power arcing out and destroying the person's life.1
The point here is that the love of God is extremely high voltage power designed to provide the energy for activity and life everywhere in the universe. God is the Origin of all power, yet at the same time God is love. They are not different or contradictory ideas, but different aspects of the same thing. Everything in creation has been designed to have a unique and distinct part to play in God's great circuit of love, and so long as they remain in harmony with the principles that govern life and reality as God designed it – receiving freely to give freely – more than merely surviving they will prosper and thrive and experience deepest satisfaction and find highest fulfillment in all they were designed to experience.
So long as we remain in proper alignment in the circuit of love continually supplied from the throne of God, the byproduct at each juncture in this circuit of beneficence is wonder, praise, gratitude, thanksgiving and ever-increasing appreciation for the life and love and heart of the One who designed and sustains all of this. The power we receive is always sufficient and is full of grace and truth. Blessings are freely received, enjoyed and amplified as we remain synchronized with the principles God created that collectively govern all creation as one composite reflection of the very principle of love itself originating in the Godhead.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
From his fullness we all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:1-4,14,16-17)
Continuing with the electrical analogy, this passage indicates that the Son of God, the one and only true Word of God's power, assumed human form for the purpose of both revealing and infusing the power of God safely back into humanity that has been so deranged by Satan's lies that we face mortal danger from exposure to the very power designed to make us thrive. This confusion has caused us to view God with suspicion and to resist His love for us. Yet our very distrust and unbelief is our greatest liability and is what Jesus came to remedy.
By taking on the form of fallen humanity, the Son of God in essence covered Himself with sufficient insulation to protect us from over exposure to levels of God's glory that could be lethal for us in our state of deep distrust of God. Thus Jesus reconnects us in His humanity linked with divinity, establishing a lifeline through which unlimited healing power can flow to this world for the purpose of distributing truth and grace that can save us from our sins. This is why there is no other way to be reconnected to God other than through Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is the only safe transmission line by which we can be reconnected back into the circuit of power safely.
Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in him does this man stand here before you whole. He is 'the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.' There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!" (Acts 4:10-12)
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me." (John 14:6)
In His veiled form of humanity, Jesus becomes the power distribution cable reconnecting heaven and earth to bring life, hope and joy into every heart willing to be synchronized once again with the heart of the Father before it is too late, before sin so hardens our internal emotional circuits that we have no capacity to repent.
Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over the house of God, let's draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider how to provoke one another [affirmation, affection, New Song lyrics and music] to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another [reminders of true identity]; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, [the truth of God's unaffected love, of our true identity as His reflectors] there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, [the remedy of truth about God and sin loses is active ingredient] but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire [the alternative view of God's power that is rooted in earthly lies resulting in a dead short] which will devour the adversaries. [viewing God through an adversarial mindset rather than a loving Father perspective, leaving us to misinterpret God's passionate love as anger, resulting in torment whenever we encounter the presence of love, denying the truth that could have set us free] (Hebrews 10:19-27)
Confusion about judgment has darkened people's perceptions of God since the very beginning of sin. Rather than attempting to explain satisfactorily every story such as the death of Nadab and Abihu or Ananias and Sapphira, I believe it is more effective to first gain an understanding of the real truth about judgment the way God does it in order to dismantle and disarm our fears and prejudices that have caused us to distrust our loving Father's heart. When we allow Jesus Christ, the only reliable revelation of God's heart, to be our sole authority by which we test every other testimony, our hearts can discover light, life and truth that can set us free.
Judgment and Bribery
Judges and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not wrest justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you. (Deuteronomy 16:18-20)
This element of bribery is extremely important to take seriously. This is not merely about human judges resisting temptations to enrich themselves at the expense of the innocent, but it directly links to how we perceive how God relates to us, especially regarding our gifts to Him and even obedience. True righteousness is outside the influence of trading and commerce and cannot be manipulated.
How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8)
For millennia people have assumed that God is in the judging business and that He is little different than the pagan gods who demand gifts in exchange for blessings, protection or provision for our needs. People have brought sacrifices to God all throughout history expecting they could alter His thinking or feelings in one way or another. Gifts and sacrifices were offered to gain forgiveness or to keep Him from being upset or whatever it was they imagined He wanted in order to gain what they wanted. Yet when it is distilled down to its core, such thinking is simply bribery, but this is not the relationship God wants with His children. That kind of thinking is rooted in imagining that God is most interested in people keeping His rules, regulations and demands, and that love and favor are only rewards for pleasing Him sufficiently. With this perception of God, it is easy to see why people balk at the idea that God is not in the judging business as we do judging. He is seeking a mutual friendship of love based on trust and with full respect for the freedom for everyone.
Judgment and Vengeance
Therefore don't you pray for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble. What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has worked lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice.
Yahweh called your name, A green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit: [this has to do with who is the source of our identity] with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it, and the branches of it are broken. For Yahweh of Armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have worked for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal. Yahweh gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then you shown me their doings. [Note the real cause of the evil to come on them – a result of their own resistance to living in His love and turning instead to their own ways.]
But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; [violently slaughtered Lamb of Revelation 5] and I didn't know that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit of it, [Tree of Life?] and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause. (Jeremiah 11:14-20)
Vengeance is closely linked with our ideas of justice and judging. It is also linked with our notions of fairness which are rooted in the scales version of justice. Thus judgment, vengeance and payback involve what we imagine must happen for justice to be served. In Satan's system, paying back evil for evil and good for good is how life is kept in balance. Yet this is what paganism has taught all along, and it originated with Satan, not God. The typical view of scales that represent justice involves two hanging bowls attached to a cross-beam by which to measure the relative moral weight between good and evil. It occurred to me that these bowls are misappropriated censers disconnected from their original purpose and meaning, that of carrying incense along with prayers and praises of God's people.
God's vengeance is to be left up to Him, not because He has more power than us to effectively inflict punishment on those we think deserve it, but because our kind of payback is always tainted with selfishness and twisted desires, the very core of Satan's kingdom of good and evil. God's judgment and vengeance operate completely outside that venue.
Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord." Therefore "If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head." Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21)
Notice particularly a reference included here defining how God does vengeance – heap coals of fire. What this is alerting us to is that we are to withdraw entirely from the mindset and agenda of the scales version of justice which is like recovering the censers from their hijacked use as measuring devices for the scales, to restore them to their original purpose – to sweeten the atmosphere with coals of burning incense emanating from the lives of those aligned with God's disposition towards His enemies.
You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' [That's how the 'justice' scales operate – returning like treatment after its own kind] But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)
The fatal fault in the design of the scales of justice, is that if the scales are allowed to swing too far out of balance they can come into danger of malfunctioning and could potentially be pushed a place where they would self-destruct through loss of credibility. That is one thing God sent Jesus to accomplish – to demolish and replace our justice scales mentality that dictates how we relate to each other and to Him. Jesus came under the Law that had been misappropriated to reinforce a wrong perception of justice, and then He pushed the scales so beyond their capacity of credible function that they were permanently damaged and would eventually collapse under the enormous weight of condemnation. Because the scales are designed to be kept close to center balance by returning evil for evil and rewarding good with good, when pushed entirely outside all resemblance to achieving that asserted purpose would expose that whole way of thinking as very immature at best and intolerable in the long term.
By allowing unlimited injustice to be heaped on Him in the form of undeserved punishment, despite clear and stated conclusions on the part of both Herod and Pilate that no cause could be discovered as an excuse to punish Him for anything, the scales became so severely over-stressed by the trial and condemnation heaped on Christ that when He died, even nature cried out in protest as the universe reacted with revulsion while those who participated in this travesty of justice suddenly realized what they had just done was a crime beyond the pall deserving of death according to their own system. The executioners purporting to defend justice had rather incriminated themselves as criminals in this case, and the whole system of justice was exposed for the fraud that it actually is all the way to its roots.
Judgment with Partiality
Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God; who "will pay back to everyone according to their works:" (Romans 2:1-6)
Here we find Paul speaking about judgment that involves both our judging of others as well as God's judgment. On the surface it would appear that he contradicts that God is being judged by others, yet upon closer examination we see that the core of the problem is our judging of God, both directly and indirectly in how we judge others created in the image of God.
But nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God. Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. (James 3:8-10)
My brothers, don't hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality. For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in; and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, "Sit here in a good place;" and you tell the poor man, "Stand there," or "Sit by my footstool;" haven't you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? [The essence of partiality]
However, if you fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak, and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom. For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:1-4, 8-13)
These last sentences explain what is meant by God judging or paying back to everyone according to their works. This is not about God imposing proportional punishment based on unforgiven offenses people have committed. Rather this explains the principle of cause and effect that is inevitable when we do not honor the principles of mercy, kindness, forgiveness and unconditional love in the way we view others. When we judge others with partiality determined by self interest rather than viewing them as equals with us in God's sight, we reject the venue of God's mercy and hand over our authority to Satan who oversees the system of proportional payback for both good and evil.
When we persist in judging others and assigning their identity based on the relative value system of this world, we withdraw our authority from God by handing it over to His enemy. In so doing, we betray our freedom to choose by giving Satan access to enslave us and harden our heart until our very capacity to respond to mercy is extinguished. When this tragic condition is reached, God is compelled to hand us over to the merciless justice we have chosen as reflective of what we think God is like, so He releases us to be judged by that system that replaces His merciful kindness.
'Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?' His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don't each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds. (Matthew 18:33-35)
We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you towards one another abounds; so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure. This is an obvious sign of the righteous judgment of God, to the end that you may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which you also suffer.
Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, giving vengeance to those who don't know God, and to those who don't obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day. (2 Thessalonians 1:3-10)
How does God repay affliction to those who afflict? The answer is in the previous passage from Matthew 18 He releases them to reap what they have sown. They are handed over to the tormentors who enforce the law of the scales, so they are compelled to feel torment for the torment they have inflicted on others, only this is not because God initiates it but because torment comes from within and is inescapable without surrendering to live under the law of life. The penalty described here – destruction from the face of the Lord and His glory, is a natural reaction that the lost experience because of their allergies to the ways of love, truth and freedom. Their false paradigms and the very basis of the identity they have embraced as reality is destroyed in the light of truth that exposes them as unsubstantial, like a hologram is exposed as having no real substance. Passages like this must always be interpreted in light of the truth as revealed about God through the words of Jesus, for it is those words alone by which all will be judged, including God Himself.
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, who did not sin, "neither was deceit found in his mouth." Who, when he was cursed, didn't curse back. When he suffered, didn't threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:21-25)
Jesus refused to participate in the slightest in the design of the scales predicated on balancing good and evil with good and evil. In this way He crashed the scales2 and destroyed their credibility forever.
Personally I have come to see judgment and the inherent dangers surrounding it, to be an issue of respecting the principles of life and harmony with those principles in order to experience blessing rather than experiencing curses. We understand in the physical realm the importance of shielding wires that carry electricity in order to prevent harm from power going where it is not designed to go. This is a useful analogy to apply to the enormous power of God's love, for principles observed in the physical realm are reflective of parallel principles in the spiritual. When we learn how these principles function and how we may relate to power according to God's will and design, we can avoid tragic mistakes of people who have ignored them in the past that opened the way for the enemy to exploit their rejection of God's will for them.
I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war. (Revelation 19:11)
Proportional Judgment
Righteous judgment is what happens when the light of truth and love exposes how one reacts to the current power love from heaven that is only intended for good. God is only light with no darkness at all in Him (1 John 1:5). How we choose to relate to this light is what Jesus defines as judgment, for judgment is simply a diagnosis, not a sentence imposed or forced on anyone. It is in how we react to love and truth that exposes the inner condition of our heart and motives, revealing the character we have been forming in how we have chosen to relate to the love already freely given to us. Judgment simply exposes how much resistance to love has been retained in the heart.
What are presumed to be punishments inflicted by God are actually descriptions of the natural results of dissonance in the heart when exposed to the presence of God's passion (the word wrath literally means passion). The intensity of torment experienced in such encounters is directly proportional to the level of resistance to love and truth one has refused to let go. This is often described as payback or judging according to our deeds, yet it really describes a natural principle that is a reaction of resistance when encountering power and can result in excessive damaging heat. When we read the phrase 'according to,' we can understand it as describing the principle of proportional cause and effect.
Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his ordinances were before me. I didn't put away his statutes from me. I was also blameless with him. I kept myself from my iniquity [twisted thinking]. Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect. With the pure, you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. For you will save the afflicted people, but the haughty eyes you will bring down. For you will light my lamp, Yahweh. My God will light up my darkness. (Psalms 18:20-28)
Resistance reacts to exposure to agape love and is evidenced by fear, anger, bitterness or other strong negative emotions. Freedom from resistance is our most urgent need and is part of the healing process needed to prepare us to come into judgment without fear but with boldness. As we allow the Spirit to live in us and bring us into living in freedom, the results of exposure to the light of God's love that causes judgment, will on that final day of judgment produce reactions of joy, hope, peace and intense bonding with the heart of God. Thus everything pivots around our willingness to cooperate with the Spirit's work in us to synchronize us with the heart of God's agape love so judgment becomes healing and life-giving rather than a terror and dread.
Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will tell me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?' Then I will tell them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.' (Matthew 7:20-23)
This is a startling revelation by Jesus of the true nature of judgment. When we do things in the name of God, we are giving public notice that we claim God's authority and we re-present Him to others. Yet when we fail to reflect His disposition and rely on His methods alone, God's authority in our lives is disallowed. Because of those who claim to represent Him, yet who remain resistant to abiding in His love, it becomes necessary necessary to investigate both God as well as those claiming to represent Him in order that the real truth may be brought to light as to the validity of our testimony, our reflection of what we believe about God. Thus all come into judgment including God.
Symptoms of sin must be understood in light of the principles of love which is described simplistically by the Law of God. His law is not like the artificial laws we are used to, but are natural and self-enforcing. Where there is resistance to love and truth, dissonance results from the improper alignment of our spirit in our relation to love. What we usually think of as sins are actually symptoms called deeds of darkness. This darkness is caused by the absence of the light of truth and reveals that we are dangerously low on love, the fuel for which we are designed. When we resist the truth of God's love, a vacuum of darkness is created in the spirit resulting in symptoms we call sin. Sin at its core is resistance to the principle of freely receiving love to freely give love to others. Determined, persistent resistance over time produces increasing reservoirs of potential friction. When judgment happens, the more resistance to love that is uncovered, the more discomfort is experienced until it eventually culminates in the choice to demand death rather than continue living in the torment that resistance to love produces in the hardened heart.
...and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn't receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:10)
God is love. He is light with no hint of darkness at all. The God who created all things is the three-part Source from which all power, love, truth, light and goodness originate. There is no corruption with God, no fear, no deceit, no shame or condemnation or limit to love. Obviously there is no resistance to love in God, but continuous, other-centered passionate love that circulates between the three members of the Godhead and flows out to all. This love has circulated from eternity past and will always flow throughout eternity future. God has no problem being judged, for They have nothing to hide (except to veil the intensity of Their love to protect those not ready to handle such intensity). God welcomes being judged, as truth never fears investigation. This is righteous judgment, for only error and darkness fear being exposed. There is no darkness in God but only love. God is not fearful of being judged, for as He is investigated and exposed, the truth of His passionate, selfless love will establish the validity of what He has been saying about Himself all along. At the same time, this judgment exposes by contrast all the lies, slander and misapprehensions circulating about Him and will be discredited, brought to nothing in the process of Him being judged. Thus the hour of His judgment means the time has come for a full and comprehensive investigation of God to be fully concluded so all confusion and chaos caused by sin may be forever eliminated.
This angel messenger invites us to judge God. This is no threat to God but is essential for the exoneration and justification of His reputation in order for the full elimination of evil be accomplished for all eternity. This angel shouts loudly to get our attention that it is time for each of us to judge God, to investigate all the evidence that has accumulated throughout history, to expose the real truth about Him so we may experience for ourselves this saving truth revealed through His Son. This will never upset God but does just the opposite. God is delighted by our probing, penetrating, challenging questions to uncover the real truth about Him, for He knows that if we truly know Him, and exert all our mental and emotional energies to unmask what is really true about what is inside Him, what we discover will be the Origin of our own identity.
But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God. (John 3:21)
This is what it means to do the truth when it comes to judgment, for to investigate and judge the character and motives and actions of the Judge whose reputation has been under such great suspicion, is what it means come to the light. When one chooses to come into the light it involves being willing to come out from under the spell of darkness. The light of truth exposes, but it also is healing and life-giving. As we choose to come into the light of love in our investigation of God in order to judge Him, the light exposes our own condition in relation to Him. Yet instead of feeling condemned by Him as we might expect, the closer we come to that Heart from which all love emanates, the more we discover the amazing truth that we have been loved by Him and have been living in Him all along. To our amazement we discover that everything we do, think, act out and even our very existence has been completely dependent on His graciousness, kindness, compassion and sustaining power of love that has been sustaining us inside of Him all along.
We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. We love Him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:16-19)
Addendum
While God is the main focus of this judgment process, and His reflectors on earth are caught up in this judgment/exposing investigation, we must not ignore the important reality that for evil to be entirely annulled and stripped of all is alluring power, the author of evil himself must be fully exposed and all the fruit of his distortions about truth must be judged by the glory of the light of truth.
God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods. [This next portion may be addressed primarily to the fallen Lucifer who originated the counterfeit judgment system that operates with a merciless justice.] "How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?" Selah. "Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked." [How did Satan use the authority granted by God in the story of Job?] They don't know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. [A clear reference to Satan's claim in Job 1 and 2 that all the earth was loyal to his principles of selfishness and system defined in commerce.] All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, "You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High. [We are gods because we are created to reflect God as His children, to be like Him. But the counterfeit distorts this by claiming God is both good and evil and harks back to Lucifer's ambition to be like the Most High and eclipse Him.] Nevertheless you shall die like men [linked to God's words addressing Lucifer in both Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28], and fall like one of the rulers." Arise, God, judge the earth, for you inherit all of the nations. [Inheritance operates by family identity, not coercive control.] (Psalms 82:1-8)
This phrase, judges among the gods, I find relevant to the words of God shortly after the fall of our first Adam. It helps me to differentiate the lie of the serpent that God knows both good and evil, with the words of God after the fall giving the reason for the need to expel Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.
Yahweh God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he put forth his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..." Therefore Yahweh God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed Cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24)
In my opinion in this context, I believe God's reference to 'us' as gods encompasses Lucifer's claim to be god, or in other words, the whole struggle in the supernatural realm of gods as to who should be trusted as portraying the truth about God among the contenders vying over what others will believe.
Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who perish; in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. For we don't preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake; seeing it is God who said, "Light will shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:3-6)
You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. (Ephesians 2:1-9)
Now is the judgment of
this world. Now the prince of this world
will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people to myself."
(John 12:31-32)
When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment; about sin, because they don't believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won't see me any more; about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged. (John 16:8-11)
For though we walk in the flesh, we don't wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time. (Revelation 20:1-3)
The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)
1While resistance to electrical power can be deadly, it is also necessary to contain and direct the transmission of that power when used in the right ways. Insulators protect the flow of electrical power over transmission lines by isolating it from escaping the wires in the wrong ways, preventing shorts and grounding so that the power is delivered to the intended location safely. Thus resistance when used correctly is a blessing, while resistance in the transmission lines themselves can be destructive. This calls for wisdom and awareness of the principles that govern how power operates.
2Some will insist that the reference to balance scales in Daniel 5 used to judge the wicked king proves that God relies on the scales system and supports it as legitimate. But this simplistic approach fails to take into account the rest of Scripture and minimizes the superior authority of the teachings of Christ as the greater light. The answer to this lies in an appreciation of how God is forced to release those who cross the line of total rejection of His mercy, to come under the tyrannical authority of merciless judgment enforced by the originator of the scales. It is not God listed as the one assessing the king as failing the balance test, but simply the announcement that the determination had transpired, meaning that the king had given his authority to Satan to be judged according to his measuring scales judging system.
