Rev 560 12/7/83, 12/11/83

DOCTRINE OF JUDGMENT

A. There are two categories of divine judgment in time.

1. By pain.

2. By death.

3. There are also two categories of evangelism: normal and crisis. Judgment by pain is an evangelistic function of God’s grace. Judgment by death is a grace function of God in the preservation of the human race.

B. Judgment by pain, Rev 16:10.

1. Judgment by pain is the function of God’s grace in crisis evangelism.

2. Grace before judgment is the function of normal evangelism. Grace in judgment is the function of crisis evangelism. Any kind of historical disaster is related to the grace of God.

3. Normal evangelism is the presentation of the Gospel in time of tranquility and prosperity during normal times. Crisis evangelism occurs in time of historical disaster and personal catastrophe.

4. The administration of the first five bowl judgments in Rev 16:1-10 is historical disaster under the category of judgment by pain.

5. Normal evangelism occurs in the presentation of the Gospel message through the evangelist, or through personal witnessing.

6. In normal evangelism, the unbeliever has the opportunity of considering the claims of Christ objectively. He has the opportunity of listening to the Gospel objectively.

7. When the unbeliever rejects Christ as his Savior in normal evangelism, he enters gate #2 of cosmic one and/or gate #2 of cosmic two, both being gates of negative volition. In cosmic one, negative volition originates from preoccupation with self. In cosmic two, negative volition comes from antagonism towards the Gospel.

8. Through cosmic involvement, the unbeliever becomes disoriented to reality through the blackout of the soul (cosmic one), and through scar tissue of the soul (cosmic two).

9. This condition insulates the unbeliever against the most powerful presentation of the Gospel. It is met with negative volition by the unbeliever. Therefore, he suffers from blackout and/or scar tissue of the soul.

10. God, in His matchless grace, gives the unbeliever another chance for salvation. As long as an unbeliever is alive, there is still hope. But once in the cosmic system, with blackout and scar tissue of the soul, he has a locked-in subjectivity that cannot repent, no matter how powerful the message, or no matter how strong the appeal. Therefore, God gives the unbeliever another chance for salvation by the introduction of pain in any form. It can be a personal catastrophe or historical disaster, or both. Pain is a grace category of Gospel appeal. No matter how great the judgment, there is always a grace aspect to it.

11. Under personal suffering or historical disaster, the pressure of one or more of the many categories of pain forces the unbeliever in the cosmic system back to reality; forces him to go from subjectivity to a very temporary objectivity. He will have a few moments for retrospection, to recall the phrases he has heard in Gospel appeal. He’ll remember enough to give him another chance to believe in Christ.

12. Being forced back to reality by pain, the unbeliever is temporarily distracted from the cosmic system. Whether he really leaves the cosmic system or not is not really the point. But for a few moments, the cosmic system loses its influence, so that he can once more objectively reconsider the message he rejected.

13. Judgment by pain does not kill the unbeliever. He is alive and in pain. This is illustrated by the first five judgments in Rev 16:1-10.

a. Bowl judgment #1 is cancer of the skin to accompany the mark of the beast on the skin.

b. Bowl judgment #2 & 3 is contamination of both salt and fresh water with blood, to accompany the shedding of the tribulational martyr’s blood.

c. Bowl judgment #4 is unbearable heat to provide a prophetical view of the heat in eternal hell.

d. Bowl judgment #5 is physical darkness to accompany the spiritual darkness of blackout and scar tissue of the soul.

14. Therefore, judgment by pain becomes the last call to personally accept Christ as savior under the principle of crisis evangelism. Judgment by pain is crisis evangelism.

15. Crisis evangelism is the judgment of God bringing the unbeliever back to temporary objective reality, and simultaneously, at the end of his human resources. That gives him the objective opportunity to consider Christ.

16. Each bowl judgment intensifies the pain from the grace of God, in order to distract the unbeliever from cosmic involvement.

a. Paul himself was a convert of crisis evangelism: he was blinded. Acts 9:18, the scales fell from his eyes when he believed in Christ, not on the Damascus road. Paul believed in Christ and then his blindness left him.

b. In other words, the unbeliever is delivered by pain for the moment as described in 2 Cor 4:3-4, “If our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” This means the unbeliever has heard and understood the Gospel, but has said, “No!”

c. The Gospel isn’t hidden or obscure. Paul heard Steven’s testimony when he was martyred. Verse 4, “In whose case, the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

d. Judgment by pain temporarily removes the blindness, so the unbeliever can once again decide what he will do about the Gospel. Some unbelievers at this point believe in Christ, others do not.

17. Those unbelievers who do not believe are like the dog who returns to his own vomit, 2 Pet 2:20-22.

a. Verse 21, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the cosmic system by knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ [crisis evangelism], they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worst for them than the first.” They have become stronger in their negative volition after rejecting God’s grace in crisis evangelism. They have locked themselves into negative volition for a second time.

b. Verse 21, “For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.” In other words, they already said, “No.” Now when they say no under crisis, God has exhausted His last grace function by which they could be saved. It would be better if they had been in this disaster without having known the Gospel before, so that they would have a shot at the Gospel again, but they have used up their options.

c. Verse 22, “It happened to them according to the true proverb [26:11], `A dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mud.’” Those in crisis evangelism, who say no, return to the cosmic system. They have rejected the strongest offer of grace, and nothing is left for them but to die.

C. Judgment by Death.

1. This is the function of God’s grace in the preservation of the human race during the entire course of human history.

2. God has promised that the human race and planet earth will not be destroyed until the end of the Millennium.

3. But the problem is that mankind keeps trying to destroy himself on earth through the folly of his bad decisions from a position of weakness. Mankind, in arrogance, is determined to destroy mankind through lust for power. Man has invented destructive weapons. But neither weapons, nor man’s greatest enemy, the flea, will destroy the existence of homo sapien on earth during human history as the extension of the angelic conflict.

4. Man’s freedom and function of volition apart from virtue and establishment restraint is self-destructive. When man is negative toward establishment, the authority defined in it, and the responsibility developed from it, he becomes degenerate under either organized or disorganized evil.

5. So judgment by death is radical surgery to separate the infected part of the human race from the non-contaminated part of the human race. The separation is permanent, since God removes through physical death those contaminated, thus giving the rest of the human race the grace opportunity to believe in Christ.

6. The illustration is Sodom and Gomorrah. This gave the progeny of Abraham the chance to use their volition for or against Christ as part of the angelic conflict.

7. Perpetuation of the human race down through the last day of the Millennium is God’s grace function in judgment by death.

8. Hence, each category of divine judgment has a purpose. Judgment by death destroys one portion of the human race to preserve another part, where total self-destruction might be imminent.

D. Application to Believers.

1. If it were not for judgment by death in previous generations of history, we would not be here now, and we would not be believers.

2. The perpetuation of the human race is only possible through judgment by death. It means blessing to us as believers. Judgment by death is a grace blessing to the living.

3. Judgment by pain is a grace blessing to the unbeliever. By application, judgment by pain distracts the believer from the cosmic system, gives him the opportunity of rebound and to move back into the divine dynasphere.

4. So judgment by pain reorients the believer to reality and the importance of fellowship with God. Therefore, when the believer loses his priorities and starts to neglect the daily perception of doctrine, God in His grace sends judgment by pain through warning and intensive discipline to bring him back into the plan of God. This is discipline by pain.

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R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740

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