We pointed out in the previous session, that the eternal judgements of God will be carried out in three successive scenes.

  The first scene will be the judgement of Christian’s believers before the judgement seat of Jesus.

  The second scene will be the judgement of the Gentile nations at the close of the great tribulation, carried out before the throne of Jesus’s glory.

The third scene will be the judgement of all the remaining dead at the close of the millennium, carried out before a great white throne.

  We have already examined the first of these three scenes, the judgement of  professing Christian’s before the judgement seat of Jesus. Now we shall move on to the next scene: the judgement of the Gentiles at the close of the great tribulation.

  First, however, we need to consider the main events which will lead up to this judgement. This will help us to understand why God has ordained a special judgement reserved only for the Gentile nations.

  Paul refers to three different categories into which God has divided the human race.

  Give no offence, either to the Jews or to the Greeks [Gentiles] or to the church of God (1 Cor. 10:32).

  The Jews are a special nation, separated out by God for purposes of His own from all other nations. The Gentiles are all the remaining nations, except Israel. The church of God consists of all true believers who have been born again through faith in Jesus Jesus. These are no longer reckoned by God according to their original nationality, whether Jew or Gentile, but as being “a new nation” in Jesus.

  Scripture makes it clear that the judgement we are now considering, before the throne of Jesus’s glory, will be for Gentiles only. No member of either of the other two groups will appear here for judgement. There will be no Jews and no  professing Christian’s. This fact agrees with the general revelation of Scripture concerning the close of this present age.

There will be no  professing Christian’s at this judgement because all these will already have undergone their own special judgement before the judgement seat of Jesus.

  There will be no Jews present at this judgement because by this time Israel, as a nation, will already have passed through her own special judgement. All Jews who survive this special judgement will have been reconciled to God through the acknowledgement of Jesus as Saviour and Messiah.

  God’s final dealings with Israel at this time will complete the historical process of judgement through which He has been bringing them for nearly four thousand years. The subsequent judgement of the Gentile nations will mark a transition from historical to eternal judgement.

  Tribulation Judgement of Israel  

  In considering this special judgement of Israel, it is helpful to observe two general principles according to which God deals with the human race: in blessing and in judgement. These may be briefly stated as follows.

  1. A principle of blessing. God normally blesses the Gentiles through the Jews, but He blesses the  Jews directly.

  2. A principle of punishment. God normally punishes the Jews through the Gentiles, but He      punishes the Gentiles directly.

  These two principles will direct God’s dealings with the human race at the close of the present age.

  First, in the closing stages of the great tribulation, God will judge and punish Israel for the last time as a nation, through the instrumentality of the Gentiles. When this final judgement of Israel is complete, God Himself will intervene directly in judgement upon the Gentiles. Jeremiah describes this final judgement upon Israel after they have returned as a nation to their own land.

  “For behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,” says the Lord. “And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.” Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah.

  For thus says the Lord:

  “We have heard a voice of trembling,

  Of fear, and not of peace.

  Ask now, and see,

  Whether a man is ever in labour with child?

  So why do I see every man with his hands on his 

  loins

  Like a woman in labour,

  And all faces turned pale?

  Alas! For that day is great,

  So that none is like it;

  And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble,

  But he shall be saved out of it.

  For it shall come to pass in that day,”

  Says the Lord of hosts,

  “That I will break his yoke from your neck,

  And will burst your bonds;

  Foreigners shall no more enslave them.

  But they shall serve the Lord their God,

  And David their king,

  Whom I will raise up for them” (Jer. 30:3-9).

Notice the order of events here foretold by Jeremiah.

  1. God will bring Israel back to their own land.

  2. There will be for Israel a time of national peril and distress, more terrible than any that they have  previously passed through.

  3. The Lord Himself will eventually intervene against the foreigners – the Gentile enemies of Israel –  and will save Israel from them.

  4. The national kingdom of Israel will again be restored upon the throne of David, under the supreme  government of the Lord Jesus Himself. This period of the restored kingdom will be the millennium.

  This end-time gathering of the Gentile nations against Israel, and the direct intervention of the Lord on behalf of Israel, are further described in Zechariah.

  And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it (Zech. 12:3).

  For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem . . . Then the Lord will go forth

  And fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:2-4).

  Here again we see that the present age will close with a concerted attack against Israel and Jerusalem by the Gentile nations but that the Lord Himself will intervene to save Israel. This intervention will culminate in His personal return to the Mount of Olives – the very point from which He ascended into heaven at the commencement of this present dispensation.

  As a result of this final period of national peril and distress, all rebellious elements will finally be purged out from among Israel, and those who survive this final purging will then be ready to be reconciled in repentance and humility to their God.

This final purging of Israel is described in Ezekiel 20:37-38, where the Lord first predicts their regathering in their own land and then describes how He will deal with them there.

  I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me.

  The phrase used here, to “make you pass under the rod,” refers to the process by which a shepherd used to inspect each one of his sheep before admitting them to the fold. As a result of this process, all rebels will be purged out from Israel, and those who are left will be brought into a new covenant relationship with the Lord – through the new covenant in Jesus Jesus.

  The intervention of the Lord against the persecuting Gentile nations and His final reconciliation with Israel are further described in Zechariah.

  It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn (12:9-10).

  It is the Lord Himself here speaking in the first person concerning Israel, and He says, “They will look on Me whom they have pierced . . .” Here is one of the clearest predictions in all Scripture of the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. However, at this point Israel will at last acknowledge their terrible error, and in great mourning and repentance they will be reconciled with their Messiah, whom they have so long rejected.

  In the New Testament Paul describes this final reconciliation of Israel to God.

  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

  “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Rom. 11:26).

  After Israel has thus passed through the fires of the great tribulation and been reconciled again to God through Jesus Jesus, there will be no further need for God to judge them. Thereafter, when Jesus sets up His earthly kingdom and takes His seat upon the throne of His glory, He will need only to judge the Gentile nations remaining alive on earth at the close of the great tribulation.

  Judgement of Gentile Nations

  Jesus gives a vivid picture of the judgement of the Gentile nations (see Matt. 25:31-46). There is no suggestion that this is a parable. It is a direct, prophetic prediction, using the analogy of a shepherd dealing with his flock. Let us examine the opening scene.

  When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left (Matt. 25:31-33).

  The purpose of the judgement that follows is to separate the sheep (those whom God accepts) from the goats (those whom God rejects). The sheep will be received into the kingdom God has prepared for them – that is, Jesus’s millennial kingdom. The goats will have final, irrevocable judgement pronounced upon them, by which they will be banished into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

  These rejected Gentiles will be sent forth not to Sheol or Hades but directly to the place of final punishment of all rebels – the lake of fire. Into this lake the beast – the Anti-Christ – and his false prophet already will have been cast.

The separation between sheep and goats is based upon one decisive issue: the way in which those being judged have treated the brothers of Jesus; that is, the Jewish people.

Many passages of Scripture make it clear that at the close of this age there will be world-wide hostility toward the Jewish people and the state of Israel. Not only will there be a concentrated attack by the Gentile nations against Israel, but Jews in other countries will be subjected to various forms of persecution. In the midst of all this, however, there will be some Gentiles who take their stand – either as individuals or as nations – on the side of the Jewish people. These will do everything in their power to protect the Jews and to alleviate their suffering. At the ensuing judgement, this will mark them out as sheep, counted worthy to enter into Jesus’s kingdom established on earth.

Joel presents a similar picture of the end-time gathering of the nations for God’s judgement.

  For behold, in those days and at that time,

  When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,

  I will also gather all nations,

  And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

  And I will enter into judgement with them there

  On account of My people,

  My heritage Israel,

  Whom they have scattered among the nations;

  They have also divided up My land (Joel 3:1-2).

  God declares that He will first bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem – that is, He will regather the scattered Jewish people in their own land. Then He will gather all the Gentile nations and bring judgement upon them.

  The basis of the judgement is the same as that described by Jesus in Matthew 25. God says He will enter into judgement with the nations “on account of My people Israel.” At this stage in history when anti-Semitism is becoming continually more widespread and more aggressive, it is tremendously important for all nations to be warned that they will be judged by God on the basis of their treatment of the Jewish people.

  Once the sheep have been separated from the goats, the judgement of the Gentile nations will be complete. By this time all those who are accounted worthy to enter into the period of Jesus’s millennial kingdom will have passed through the refining judgements of God. First, Israel will be purged in the fires of the great tribulation. Then, at the close of the tribulation, the Gentiles will be purged by Jesus’s own direct intervention and judgement.

  After these purging judgements upon both Jew and Gentile, there will ensue a thousand years of peace and prosperity, with Jesus ruling as King over all the earth.

  At the close of this period of one thousand years, Satan will make one final attempt to organise the Gentile nations in rebellion against Jesus and His kingdom, but this rebellion will be brought to nought by the direct intervention of God.

  At this time Satan himself will at last be banished forever from earth and will be cast into the lake of fire, to join the Anti-Christ and the false prophet who will already be there.

  With this defeat of Satan’s final uprising, all the rebellious among those living at that time upon the earth will be purged out, and it will then remain to judge the dead of all previous ages. For this purpose, all the dead who have not previously been resurrected will at this time be called forth for judgement. In this way the stage will be set for the third and final scene of God’s eternal judgement.

  The Great White Throne  

  Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15).

  Here is the ultimate end of all sin and rebellion against the authority and holiness of almighty God: to be cast forever into the lake of everlasting fire. Only those whose names are written in the Book of Life will escape this final judgement. The names recorded in this book are of those who during their life on earth availed themselves, through faith, of God’s mercy and grace. These fall into various categories.

  All those who put their faith in Jesus’s atoning sacrifice on behalf of mankind will already have been resurrected at the commencement of the millennium. They will have passed through their own appropriate judgement before the judgement seat of Jesus – not for condemnation, but to assess their reward.

  It seems certain that the majority of those who appear before the great white throne will not have fulfilled the conditions for receiving God’s mercy and will therefore be condemned to the lake of fire. Nevertheless, as was pointed out in chapter 46, there will definitely be at least two categories of people before the great white throne who will escape condemnation and enter into eternal life.

  The first category will consist of people such as the queen of the South and the men of Nineveh, who availed themselves of the mercy which God offered to them in one brief but decisive revelation of Himself. Scripture does not indicate how many others there may have been in the course of history who were given a similar opportunity.

  The second category will consist of all those who died in faith during the millennium.

  Can we anticipate that there will be others to whom God will extend mercy from His great white throne? The answer to this is locked up within the omniscience of God. For us, with our limited knowledge and narrow perspective, it is foolish to speculate.

  Let us rather adopt the attitude expressed by Abraham.

  Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Gen. 18:25).

  Those who have tasted God’s measureless mercy are assured that He will never withhold His mercy from any who qualify for it.

  Let us beware, however, of assuming that we can ever fully comprehend all that is included in the outworking of God’s judgements. The studies in this book have merely touched on certain aspects which God has seen fit to record in Scripture. There remain many other areas of this vast subject which are totally beyond our powers of comprehension.

  In the last resort, we can only share the awe and wonder expressed by Paul.

  Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out! (Rom. 11:33).

  This appropriately concludes the systematic study of the six foundation doctrines of the Christian’s faith which have been the theme of this book.

  By means of systematic study, we have thoroughly laid that scriptural foundation of doctrine upon which the faith of every Christian’s may be firmly built. With this foundation laid, it then becomes possible to obey the further exhortation of Hebrews 6:1:

  Let us go on to perfection.

  Let us continue to build upon this foundation until we have achieved in our lives a completed edifice of Christian’s doctrine and practice. The same Word of God which provides the needed foundation also shows us how we may go on to the perfection of the completed edifice. Therefore, to all those who have followed with me in these studies, I will offer this final word of exhortation, taken from the life of Paul.

  And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified (Acts 20:32).