“For we [Christians] must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ...”

The word translated appear means actually “to be made manifest.” I think it’s a very frightening word. Everything about us will be totally known, there’ll be no secrets. We’ll all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat in Greek is bema; it’s what a Roman official sat on when he conducted judgment. That’s what Pontius Pilate sat on when he judged Jesus. There’s a different scene, there’s a great white throne for the judgment of the remainders. This is the judgment of Christians. And please bear in mind, Romans 8:1:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”

It is not a judgment of condemnation; it is a judgment to assess the quality of our service and to give the appropriate rewards. Paul says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ:

“...that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

And notice there are only two categories, good or bad. John says in the first epistle all unrighteousness is sin. Anything that is not righteous is sinful. It’s like if somebody asked you to illustrate the word crooked. The way I would do it is this; I’d show them a straight line and say anything that deviates from that line is crooked. It may deviate by one degree or it may deviate by ninety degrees but it’s crooked.

And that’s how it is it with righteousness. Anything that is unrighteous is sinful. Anything that is not good is bad. There’s no middle ground. This is a deception of the enemy which he has foisted upon the church, “Well, I’m not doing what’s right but I’m not really doing what’s bad.” That’s not possible. It’s one or the other.

This is the judgment seat of Christ. Then we come to the overthrow of the antichrist and his forces. Now, in 1 John 4 John speaks about antichrist in three ways: the spirit of antichrist, many antichrists and the antichrist.

The spirit of antichrist is the spirit that operates through every antichrist.

The many antichrists have been here since the second century A.D. One of the most significant was Bar Kochba who claimed to be the messiah and led the Jewish people in the final revolt against Rome which was utterly suppressed and the whole nation was either killed or taken into captivity. There was another one called Shabbatide Spee (phonetic) in the 17th century who claimed to be the messiah and said he would take the Jewish people back to the Middle East and plant them in their land. He went to the Middle East, was arrested by the Turks and converted to Islam. So that was a disappointment. The Jewish encyclopedia records about forty false messiahs that have come to the Jewish people since the time of Jesus. Jesus said, “Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am the messiah,’ and will deceive many.” So there have been many antichrists and a lot of antichrists in the church, we don’t need to be too specific about that.

But the antichrist has not yet come. I personally believe his shadow has fallen across the stage of human history but he has not emerged. He will be the final embodiment of all that is evil and satanic. When he rules humanity, which he will

Laying the Foundation

*Browse Series

Galimos kalbos

Pastatytas ant Uolos