Order is heavens first law, the Almighty is the God of order not of chaos, everything which was, is, and is to come is following along the divine plan or purpose; nothing has been left to chance as it involves the plan for man’s salvation and recovery.
God’s plan for the salvation of the world begins first with the Church (the living) and then with the world (the dead). Only those believers who have been joined to Christ are in any sense considered alive at this time, as it is written "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life."
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36)
However it should be noted that although the Church is comprised of believers, not all believers comprise the Church that is the True Church.
“Jesus foretold, namely that there would be the true and the false mingling together throughout the Age, otherwise known as the wheat and the tares. There is, therefore, as all know, the professing Church, the worldly or nominal Church represented in the masses of professing Christians, which is really part and parcel with the world, glossed with a little knowledge of the Divine Word and Plan and with some small endeavor to heed the Divine instruction; but the real Church includes only those who have turned from sin and accepted Christ with a full consecration of thought word, and deed.” These are the regenerated or made alive ones, new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Nevertheless before any of these “made alive ones” are chosen to be members of the body of Christ, the true Church they must first be tried, tested, and judged by the Lord himself as to their fitness and worthiness, for at this time of his appearing and kingdom Christ shall judge both the quick (the living) and the dead (The race of mankind, all of whom are still under the sentence of death). 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:4, 5)
“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” (Rom 14:10)
Both the quick and the dead will have their case tried before Christ, the great judge, in due time. As we (the Church) are now before the judgment-seat of Christ, so during the Millennial age the whole world of mankind will be before his judgment-seat and be separated into two classes, the sheep and goats.
THE JUDGMENT OF 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.” (Rev 20:11-13)
That the vision here recorded portrays the world's great judgment Day has never been questioned by any expositor of the Revelation. In the various interpretations that have been offered however, the fact has been generally lost sight of that it is a symbolic vision of the judgment Day and will of necessity, no matter how it may be interpreted, cover a considerable period of time. The general and incorrect thought concerning it is that the momentous transactions described in the vision will occupy only a brief period, some holding that they will all be over in one literal twenty-four hour day. This conception of the matter we cannot regard as either reasonable or Scriptural.
"The view generally entertained [respecting the judgment Day] is that Christ will come to earth, seated upon a great white throne, and that He will summon saint and sinner in rank and file before Him to be judged, amidst great convulsions of nature-earthquakes, opening graves, rending rocks and falling mountains; that the trembling sinners will be brought from the depths of everlasting woe to hear their sins rehearsed, only to be again returned to an eternal and merciless doom; and that the saints will be brought from heaven to witness the misery and despair of the condemned, to hear again the decision in their own cases, and to return. According to the prevailing theory, all receive their sentence and reward at death; and this, which by way of distinction is commonly called the general judgment, is merely a repetition of that first judgment, but for no conceivable purpose, since they claim that a decision which is final and unalterable is rendered at death.
"The entire time supposed to be assigned to this stupendous work of judging billions is a twenty-four hour day, this is a very crude conception, and is entirely out of harmony with the inspired Word."--STUDIES, VOL. 1-137-138.
The failure to properly understand this vision of the judgment Day, we believe, comes from a misunderstanding of what the Scriptures teach on this subject, namely, that all mankind have been under the condemnation to death ever since the beginning of the execution of the sentence, "dying thou shalt die," on the occasion of the fall and the banishment of our first parents from the life-sustaining trees of Eden. (Gen 3) That sentence was not only to die, but to continue dead forever, unless the great Creator would make some arrangement to lift the penalty, and at some time exercise His Almighty power and release from death, awaken and restore man to life again.
The Scriptures plainly teach that He has made such an arrangement. It was in connection with the carrying out of such a purpose or plan of release, of salvation, that the Son of God took upon Himself the form of a servant and was made flesh, a human being, and gave Himself, His flesh, His humanity, for the life of the world. This is all very briefly, yet pointedly stated in the words of the Apostle Paul, "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels [a perfect human being, like Adam] for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor [of perfect manhood] ;that He by the grace of God should taste death for EVERY MAN."--Heb. 2:9. (The Herold of Christ’s Kingdom, February 1921)
Continued with next post.
