Christianne's Spiritual Journal

Judgement

First, I want to remind you that in the last days there will be scoffers who will laugh at the truth and do every evil thing they desire. This will be their argument: “Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? Why, as far back as anyone can remember, everything has remained exactly the same since the world was first created.”

They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth up from the water and surrounded it with water. The he used the water to destroy it with a mighty flood. And God has also commanded that the heavens and the earth will consumed by fire on the day of judgement, when ungodly people will perish. 

But you must not forget, dear friends, that a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and everything in them will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be exposed to judgement. 

Since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives you should be living! 

And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to live a pure and blameless life. And be at peace with God.

—2 Peter 3:3-11; 14

I was working at Denny’s yesterday when a huge rush of people flooded the restaurant at 7PM. We had to start a waitlist and use five servers on the floor because of how busy it got. It’s not usually too busy on Saturday nights, so I wondered why so many people came in, and then I realized it was because people were celebrating the un-end of the world over pancakes and bacon like there was no tomorrow (pun intended).

When I’m introduced to ideas and thoughts presented as truth, I like to think that there are two options: it is either true or false. There are those ideas that are half-truths, but half-truths are not the whole truth and therefore it would be a false truth, but for the sake of this post, the idea would naturally either be true or false.

So I suppose if I didn’t believe in the Bible or the person of Jesus Christ or even a God, I wouldn’t ask myself when Judgement Day would be, but if there was a Judgement Day. Because in reality, there either is one, or there isn’t.

If there isn’t one, then I can go on with my life with no worries, eating bacon and pancakes every time someone says the end of the world is going to come, because hey, there ain’t no end of the world comin’ any time soon. 

But let’s say there is a Judgement Day. Let’s say that on June 1st, if there supposedly is a God and the Bible is true to what it says, Christians will disappear from the earth in the event known as the Rapture, and God will somehow punish the earth for sinning against Him, setting fire to it and sending those who do not believe to Hell.

That, of course, sounds waaaaay too crazy. But let’s say I entertained the idea of this crazy thought. Well, logically I would have to think to myself, “If there is a Judgement Day, then what must I do to be saved from the eternal judgement of this God?” Then I would look at the claims of Christianity, and see that Christians believe in this man called Jesus Christ. According to Christians, this man is God and supposedly died on the cross for my sins. My disgusting sins fall short of a perfect, holy and righteous God, so it’s enough to send me to Hell. But this Jesus loved me so much that he took the bullet for me, so that I might become right with God and spend eternity with Him in heaven. I wouldn’t understand what sin was or what it meant to be right with God, but I would logically understand that the way to be saved from Judgement Day, or Hell even, was to believe in Jesus Christ; to understand that I need a Saviour.

I can’t blame people for wanting to celebrate their existence after the end of the world was so confidently announced. It’s only a natural reaction.

But even disregarding this Judgement Day thing, to live like there is no tomorrow and to live like death brings nothing is very dangerous and very stupid. As John Duncan said,

Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma. It is inexorable. 

People think Christians are just all about faith and feelings? I believe in Christ because even if I depart myself from my heart, my brain still tells me that I can’t just ignore the claims this Jesus made. It makes no sense to not seriously consider who Jesus is. He was either who He said He was, or He wasn’t.

He either came to save us, or He didn’t. He’s either coming back, or He’s not. I’m either going to Heaven, or I’m not. I’m either going to Hell, or I’m not. There is either a God, or there is not. There is either a Purpose to life, or there is not. There is either life after death, or this is not.

And if the only thing saving me from the wrath of God is this man that they call Jesus Christ, then I have to logically think that either this man was the Son of God, and He came to save me from my sins and from eternal damnation, or He wasn’t.

So, if after weighing both sides, I came to the conclusion that I believed in who Jesus Christ said He was, and that I trusted Him with my life, heart, soul and mind, and that I believed He saved me from my sins because of his unusual death on a cross.. and I was wrong, then I would have nothing to worry about because there is no heaven or hell or a God. I would have just lived a good and faithful life for my own personal and moral benefit. No harm done.

But, if I come to the conclusion that Judgement Day is a load of religious BS and that Jesus was not who He said He was and that there is no righteous, Holy God who will carry out what He says He will do one day according to the Bible.. and I was wrong.. 

The point is, I wish people would stop celebrating the un-end of the world and actually logically think what if there is an end of the world, and if there was, what would save me? I wish people would think from there and examine all possibilities, and realize that their souls aren’t a joking matter. 

As a human being, that’s the most important decision you will have to make. Forget about who you will marry, what kind of career you will pursue, where you want to live or where you want to go to school. The most important decision you will ever make is whether or not you will accept the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on your behalf for your soul.

It’s either He did or He didn’t. So if any of you out there are celebrating your existence, that’s great. But I would hope that you all would take the time to examine where you stand regarding who Jesus Christ is and what He claims to be, because it’s literally worth your whole eternity.