The coming wrath of God
In Romans chapter 2, the Apostle Paul talks a lot about God's Judgment. So, I think it's important to understand what God's Judgments are.
The coming tribulation will be one type of judgment that is coming upon the earth. Today we are in the dispensation of the grace of God. A dispensation is the act of dispensing or dealing out. Today God is dispensing grace. Dispensation IS a Bible word as Paul in Ephesians 3:2, says “the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you-ward.” God had committed to Paul the wonderful message of grace to dispense to others. When the dispensation of grace is over, when God raptures out the church the Body of Christ, then God will continue his prophetic program with Israel and that will be the beginning of the 7 year tribulation period upon the earth. You don't want to be here during that time! The Lord Jesus Christ said during His earthly ministry that "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." Matthew 24:21 And since the rapture is imminent, we don't know when the rapture will occur. So the immenince of the rapture compels believers even more to share the gospel with others so that if they will simply believe the gospel of the grace of God, then they will not have to live through that horrible time. Believers from the dispensation of grace will NOT have to endure the 7 year tribulation.
The 7 year tribulation is an early "refinement" of sorts before God will eventually create a new heaven and a new earth (the 7 year tribulation occurs, then the 1000 year reign of Christ and then the Great White Throne judgment of Unbelievers and finally the new heaven and the new earth). God has given mankind ample time during the dispensation of grace to believe the gospel and then to grow up spiritually- the gospel has been all around the world for quite awhile! Many people have been saved and will continue to be saved until the rapture, but still the vast majority are spiritually lost and the world today seems to be turning further away from biblical teachings unfortunately which makes it more difficult on believers to get the gospel out to everyone.
Another judgement for unbelievers will be at the Great White Throne Judgment. When an unbeliever dies today, they go straight to hell (hell is in the center of the earth! Matt 12:40; Eph 4:9). Hell is dark and full of fire, and even science tells us that their is molten lava (a lake of fire basically) and darkness in the earth. But, an unbeliever still hasn't been completely judged yet. They will be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment as described in Rev 20: 11-15.
11 "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
So after this judgement, where an unbeliever is judged for all of their sins (remember, all an unbeliever can do is sin! They will literally be judged and condemned for every moment of their life after they had reached the "age of accountability"! Judged for every thought, word and deed!). Then they are cast into the lake of fire.
Hell/Lake of Fire
Those who die in their sins will literally spend all of eternity in the lake of fire, as will Satan and his angels. They will be given an eternal body fit for eternal punishment in hell. I'm not going to go into all of the details here, you can certainly study it out more for yourself, but it is not something anyone would want to experience. The worst part is that these people are forever apart from God. Once a person dies physically, if they were never saved, their fate is sealed. It's not possible for them to change after that, similar to how Satan and his devils can never be redeemed. People do not die and become ghosts who roam the earth, they don't just cease to exist, they are not reborn in another lifetime and certainly not everyone goes to heaven!
Hell is not my favorite subject to talk about, however it's important to realize and understand that it does exist. Jesus spent a lot of time during His earthly ministry warning people about hell.
Matthew 10:28
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 23:33
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Luke 16:23
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
2 Peter 2:4
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
Matthew 25:41
“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:”
It's also in the old Testament and really all throughout scripture!
Numbers 16:30-33
30 But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.
31 And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them:
32 And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.
33 They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.
There are other judgments too in scripture such as the believers judgment, also called the BEMA judgement seat of Christ, that has to do with how much sound grace doctrine a Saint had believed and obeyed (how much we, as believers have allowed Christ to live in and through us). This judgement is not anything to fear, but something to look forward to as we will also be given our rewards in heaven! These rewards will also equal our placement in God's heavenly government-- in other words, our new heavenly careers!
Ro 14:10 "...for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."
Ro 14:12 "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."
Judging of the nations is another judgement that occurs either right before or after the 1,000 year reign of Christ on the earth. It has to do with whether or not Gentile Nations had blessed the believing Jews during the prophetic program. God is NOT judging nations today during the dispensation of grace.
Homework: Read Romans chapter 2 in KJB. In this chapter do you notice any questions asked by Paul? Why do you think questions are used? Is Paul using these questions to help teach something?
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