Judgment Part I

Preface

          Is the merit-demerit ledger the norm that God use for our redemption? The biblical language: Does our good works merit our salvation? Philstar, a Philippine daily newspaper, columnist William Esposo is of the belief our merits must outweigh the demerits to have a good standing with God. Good works are our duty as children of God. They don’t merit salvation. We are saved and reconciled with God only through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation comes from Him alone, not from inside us.

What is the relevance of the latest message of the present Pope to the Philippines to our topic? In not so many words he told our newly anointed Cardinal Tagle to bring the Filipinos nearer to him—the “Holy Father” on earth. In contrast the Bible teaches that we come near to God (Christ), and not to any man. It also says not to call anyone on earth father, more so call someone Holy. For someone to call himself holy is the height of pride. ¹ For God alone is holy! In contrast, all men are sinners and they need to be humble before God and fellowmen. 

The Catholic Church Belief of Judgment

The belief of the Catholic Church includes: (1) Judgment at death and at the end of life at the Second Coming; (2) ascension of the righteous souls to heaven after death (first judgment), or (2) travel of the unrighteous souls direct to hell after death (also first judgment) or (3) transition in purgatory of still unforgiven souls and going later to heaven once purged of sins, which is the second chance concept. Comment: purgatory is not found in the Bible canon; only in the Apocrypha. ² I guess the word was ingeniously coined from the word purge. Or borrowed from fiction: “Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy…. It is an allegory ...” (Wikipedia)

Salvation is a process and so is the judgment. The judgment process involves: (1) Satan putting up the charge against us before God, (2) investigation and opening of records, and (3) sentencing and execution of judgment. We will put out below a set of texts to explain the process and the timelines. It is not correct to put out a doctrine with just one scripture or a couple or to pit texts of the Old Testament against those of the New. We should understand that the Holy Scripture is to be taken as one book with one story. The Holy Bible is composed of many books, with each book telling a part of the one encompassing story. The Bible teaches us in this manner then:  “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little”. (Isaiah 28:9, 10)  In other words, study as many texts as possible from all over the Scripture to teach a doctrine. We will begin to study the process of judgment in Part II                ______ 

Notes:

¹ Again, the Pope is caught in his words. When he says, “Let the people come near me,” he means he is God’s substitute on earth, and has the power to bestow grace and blessings. God is hidden by this substitution. Consequently, instead of God being worshiped, the Pope is. This is the basic route of idolatry. One who has the Spirit can easily spot the absence of God in the Pope’s message and the presence of a SUBSTITUTE, in this case the Pope is.

² The Apocrypha is not supposed to be part of the Bible Canon. That it has reference of purgatory, which is not found in the canon, speaks for the correctness of historical agreement for its non-inclusion. In other words, it is not an inspired book.