Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Judgments are coming in the Eschaton—the end times. What is God’s schedule for these judgments? And what do they entail? Let’s talk about that today here on Grace in Focus. So glad you have joined us for this ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. We come to you each weekday and we have a website where you can find out more about us. It is faithalone.org. You can also view our teachings on YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society. That’s our YouTube channel. We have two or three new releases there each week. So subscribe, like, and enjoy those. Find them at YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society. And our website once again, faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and David Renfro.

BOB: Okay, David, I believe you have a question. 

DAVID: It’s from Clay. I can’t seem to find a straight answer to this question. 

BOB: Well, let’s try to give it to him. 

DAVID: Let’s do our best. He says, apparently, the White Throne judgment is at the end of the Tribulation, the Great White Throne, and then he says, now I agree with you the two judgments are two separate events. What our Bible study group couldn’t determine is when the other judgment will take place, for the believers alone, those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Is there a specific time mentioned somewhere for the judgment of believers? 

BOB: Okay. Excellent question. But first of all, I think your Bible study group is a little confused about the judgment of unbelievers, when that occurred. 

DAVID: I agree. 

BOB: Because what did Clay say? 

DAVID: It takes place at the end of the Tribulation. The Great White Throne happens at the end of the Tribulation, but that is not true. 

BOB: In Revelation 20, the opening verses talk about a Millennium. In fact, Revelation 20, I guess at what is it, 1 through 6, are the leading verses in the entire Bible that specifically mention the term “a thousand years”? Satan was bound for a thousand years and thrones and judgment was committed. And it talks about that they reigned with Christ for a thousand years in verse 6, right? So that’s called the Millennium. And notice after this, in verses 11 through 15, “then I saw a Great White Throne and Him who sat on it”. 

DAVID: Yeah. And that’s after the verse 8, it talks about the final rebellion of Satan after the end of the Millennium. And then verse 11 starts out with the Great White Throne. So it’s obvious that the Great White Throne happens after the millennial kingdom, not after the Tribulation. 

BOB: Okay. So let’s walk through the timeline. Right now we’re in what’s called the church age. The next major eschatological event, eschatological is a big word to mean last days. Prophetic event. The next major prophetic event is what? 

DAVID: The Rapture. 

BOB: The Rapture.

DAVID: 1 Thessalonians 4.

BOB: Okay, 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5. And there’s other texts as well of course. And then the question is what follows the Rapture? 

DAVID: The Tribulation. 

BOB: Okay. You’ve got—how long is that? 

DAVID: Seven years. 

BOB: In the Old Testament, it’s called the time of Jacob’s Trouble. 

DAVID: That’s true. 

BOB: So you’ve got the seven years, which in the book of Revelation, it actually breaks it down into three and a half and three and a half and the book of Daniel does too. 

DAVID: Yes it does. 

BOB: And Daniel chapter 12, what is it? 1260 days, which is three and a half years of 360 days. 

DAVID: That was the way a year was defined back then, 360 rather than 365. 

BOB: Right. And so you have the seven years precisely seven years after the Tribulation, then there’s a 75 day gap according to Daniel chapter 12. The Tribulation ends and the Millennium doesn’t begin for 75 days. During that time, there’s the judgment of the sheep and the goats, which is spoken of in Matthew 25:31-46. That’s Gentile believers—sheep, and unbelievers—goats, they’re judged during that interim time between the end of the Tribulation and the beginning of the Millennium. 

And there’s other time left there and we’re not sure what it’s for because in Daniel 12, there’s a 30 day, 1290 days, and then there’s a 75 day, 1345 days. And so we can talk about that because it relates to this question about when the Judgment Seat of Christ is.

So the Great White Throne Judgment after the Millennium, so the way it goes is we have the Tribulation followed by the 75 day gap there. And then we have the Millennium. At the end of the Millennium, there is this satanic rebellion because Satan is released at the end of the thousand years. And that shows there are unbelievers on the earth that join with this rebellion, right? Not everybody comes to faith during the Millennium, even though Jesus is on earth and even though David’s there and Abraham’s there and all the Old Testament believers and all the apostles are there and all of us believers will be there and yet still some people won’t believe. Sounds like a lot won’t believe because it’s pretty big rebellion. 

Okay, after that rebellion is put down, then we have Satan cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet already are, and then we have the Great White Throne Judgment. And after that comes the new heaven and the new earth in Revelation 21 and 22, I saw a new heaven and new earth. 

So first point, Clay, is that the Great White Throne Judgment is after the Millennium before the new earth. And the people whose names are not written in the Book of Life, which I love the fact that he got this right, Clay is exactly right that the issue at the Great White Throne Judgment in terms of condemnation, who’s sent to the lake of fire is, if your name’s not written in the Book of Life, you’re cast in the lake of fire. 

DAVID: Well, he also mentions that what’s confusing to him is he mentions two judgments. Great White Throne is one.

BOB: That’s for unbelievers 

DAVID: And then there’s another judgment—

BOB: And he doesn’t give it a name, but it’s called the Judgment Seat of Christ. Or the word Bema is the word “judgment seat” in Greek. So some people call it the Bema, Bema seat.

DAVID: The Bema seat, yeah, for believers alone. 

ANNOUNCER: Just jumping in here to make you aware of our magazine, Grace in Focus. It is a bi-monthly, six issues per year, 48 page magazine, full color. And we want you to subscribe by emailing your name and your snail mail address to GES@faithalone.org. The subscription is free, it can be accessed electronically, or it can be actually physically sent to you if you live in the lower 48 United States. That’s our Grace in Focus magazine. Send your name and snail mail address to GES@faithalone.org.

BOB: It’s called the Judgment Seat of Christ. Or the word Bema is the word “judgment seat” in Greek, so some people call it the Bema. 

DAVID: The Bema seat, yeah, for believers alone. he’s probably asking when does the Bema seat judgment occur? 

BOB: And I’ve taken 77 minutes to get to this, but let me give you three possible answers. One answer, it takes place exactly at the same time as the Great White Throne Judgment. In fact, it is part of the Great White Throne Judgment, that the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Great White Throne Judgment are two names of the same judgment. 

I wrote a book called Four Views on the Role of Works at the Final Judgment. Zondervan published it. There were three other authors. One was a Calvinist, one was a Catholic, and one was an Anglican. All the other three said I was nuts when I said there’s two separate judgments—one for believers called the Judgment Seat of Christ and one for unbelievers called the Great White Throne Judgment. They all three said the Judgment Seat of Christ is another name for the Great White Throne Judgment.

DAVID: They think it’s the same thing. 

BOB: Right. One of them even said that the judgment of the sheep and the goats is another name for the Great White Throne Judgment. So they had all eschatological judgments combined in one. That’s one view, but that is not correct. That is absolutely wrong.

Now there’s two other views. Both of these views say that the Judgment Seat of Christ is sometime after the Rapture and before the Millennium. Most dispensationalists would say that the Judgment Seat of Christ occurs sometime during the seven years of the Tribulation, right? So it would occur after we’re raptured and either it would take place in the third heaven, if the Lord takes us back to the third heaven, which is what most people think, or it could take place in the air, because according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, we meet him in the first heaven in the air. 

So that’s one view. The other view, which happens to be my view, is that the Judgment Seat of Christ will take place during the 75 days between the ending of the Tribulation and the beginning of the Millennium. I think that it’ll take place after the judgment of the sheep and the goats. So that during that other 45 days, that’s when the Judgment Seat of Christ will occur. And I think it’ll take place on earth because we did our works on earth. I think it makes sense that we’ll be judged on earth. And there’s no indication that we are judged in heaven. 

Now I know there are some people the way they understand Revelation 5:9-10 about the antiphonal singing. And in the Majority Text, it says, the 24 elders say you have redeemed us by your blood. Some people say well that proves the Judgment Seat of Christ has already occurred. John Claeys, who agrees with me, the Judgment Seat of Christ occurs during those 75 days. He thinks that Revelation 5:9-10 looks to the time before the Tribulation begins, and that there will be church age believers who have already died who are overcomers. And so they will already be clothed in white. They will already have crowns as a result, even though they’ve not experienced their judgment yet. They’ve already experienced some of the benefits of that coming judgment. 

My view is a little different than John’s. I think when they say you have redeemed us by your blood, they are like singers in an opera. If I’m singing in an opera, I’m presenting myself as someone. I’m an actor. In fact, I think the 24 elders are angelic beings and that they represent Israel and the Church. 12 for Israel, 12 for the Church. But either way, I would agree with John that occurs after the Tribulation on earth. 

But I guess to bring this to a close, it’s clearly after the Rapture and before the Millennium begins. It cannot occur after the Millennium because some of us believers will rule and reign with Christ during the Millennium. And we couldn’t do that unless we were already judged. 

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 uses the term Judgment Seat of Christ. So does Revelation 14:10-12. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 talks about it. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, 1 John 2:28, 1 John 4:17-19 talks about it. Luke 19, the parable of the minas, talks about it. Matthew 25, the parable of the talents, talks about it. Matthew 24:45-51, the parable of the just and the unjust servant. There’s lots of verses that talk about the Judgment Seat of Christ.

DAVID: Which shows how important it is. 

BOB: It’s very important. And so we need to be watching for Christ’s soon return because we don’t want to be someone who is caught like the homeowner who is not being prepared for the thief coming in the night. Because Jesus says His coming is imminent, but it’s unknown. We don’t know the exact time. 

Well, thanks so much, Clay, great question. And thank you all. And let’s keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Read many from our library of thousands of free magazine and journal articles online at faithalone.org/resources that’s faithalone.org. Did you miss an episode of Grace in Focus that you really wanted to hear? Just come to faithalone.org, that’s faithalone.org. We have all our past episodes right there on the site. Our team is really great about answering questions, comments and feedback. If you’ve got some, we hope to hear from you. Let me give you our email address so you can do just that. It’s radio@faithalone.org. That’s radio@faithalone.org. 

Thank you friend for joining us each day this week. I hope you have a great weekend and join us again on Monday. And in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.