Christians love talking about judgment day. It seems to justify everything they do. If you stay on one side of the line, then you’re
okay, but if you stray on the other side, then you are tortured for all
eternity. What is this line? Some Christians talk about belonging to one
group or another, but in the end the word they all use is “faith”. If you believe the right thing—like God and
Jesus and the resurrection and stuff—then you get to go to a good place. If you believe the wrong thing—anything other
than God and Jesus and the resurrection—then you are tortured for all
eternity.
Christians say it’s a pretty easy deal. There’s nothing to do, just believe the right
thing. There are a couple obvious
problems with this system, though.
First, not everyone has heard about Jesus, and if they have it’s easy to
think of Jesus as a good story and nothing else. None of us believes in things that aren’t
given to us as fact. Also, belief isn’t
always something we can control. You
could tell me that Thor and his hammer rule the world, and no matter how much
you try to convince me, I can’t really believe it. Even if I wanted to, I just couldn’t make
myself do it. So why would I be punished
for eternity because I couldn’t believe in Thor? And how different is the story of Jesus?
But that’s not why Christians are wrong. They are wrong because there is one phrase
throughout the Bible that describes how people will be judged on the last day: “Everyone
will be judged according to what they have done.” There isn’t a single verse in the Bible that
says that God will choose the Christians to inhabit the good place and the bad
place to be for the non-Christians.
Rather it is all based on how people live—whether they lived good lives
or bad ones.
So what makes a good life as opposed to a bad one? Does it mean a life of sexual purity and
singing praise to God? Does it mean
attending the right church? Actually,
Jesus talks about it quite plainly.
Those who exhibit mercy and love in their lives are the ones who get the
thumbs up, and those who are apathetic and uncaring get the thumbs down on
judgment day. Specifically, Jesus says
that those who spend their time feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing
the homeless, helping immigrants, healing the sick and being kind to people in
prison are those who get to hang out with God.
Which only makes sense, because God is love and it’s only reasonable
that he’d want to hang with kind people for eternity. And those who don’t do kind deeds are
separated from God, which also makes sense because why would God want to hang
out with self-righteous, stingy people?
But what Jesus says about these guys is even more
surprising. That the people who got in,
didn’t know they were getting in, and those on the outs didn’t know they were
being thrown out. When they saw Jesus
dividing the people between good and bad, they thought they’d be on the other
side. Why is this? Probably because they’ve been told all their
lives that being on the right side has to do with what you believe and which
religious group there is. But in the
end, there will be Buddhists and Muslims and atheists and pagans who get to
hang out with God and plenty of Christians and Jews who don’t. Why?
Because anyone who acts out the generosity and kindness and love of God
are the kind of people God wants to hang out with. And self-righteous prigs who think their
intellectual capacity and the pious activities they do are enough to be with
God never got it. Judgement day is a
party for those who show the love of God only.
Judgment is based on what one does: Job 34: 11; Ecclesiasties 3:17; Ezekiel 33: 20; Matthew 16:27; Romans 2:6; I Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:13.
Judgment is based on acts of kindness: Matthew 25:31-46
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