1.12. Judging Our Maker

Judging Our Maker or "Vengeance is Mine," Saith the Lord

"Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and [to] Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think [of men] above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another" (1 Corinthians 4:5-6, KJV).

"For we know Him who said, ’Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ’The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:30-31, NKJV).

Whether we admit it or not, nearly all believers "judge before the time." We do not know the end from the beginning, yet most of us have pet doctrines as to what will happen to mankind when it is all finished. We bring out our little pet end-time doctrines and tell the world what one must do to avoid eternal punishment, or annihilation. What we, unfortunately, do not realize is that in doing so, we have also judged our Maker. We have judged His work, His people, and since He identifies with His people, we have judged Him. When we, through our doctrines determine whether our Creator will roast or annihilate someone, we have made a judgment. When we state a person is going to "hell" if he or she does not invite Jesus into their heart, we have judged our Creator. When we say that He will resurrect all, give all a chance to "make the decision" and those refusing to join up with Jesus, will be annihilated, we have judged our Maker. Of course, we say we are just quoting what the Bible says, but are we really quoting what the Bible says, or are we chaining scriptures out of context to make the Bible say what is really just in our hearts? Are we just projecting onto the Creator what we feel would be just if we were the Creator?

Let us take the above scripture in Hebrews as an example. How often have we heard this scripture used to tell people that God is vengeful, wrathful, and angry toward sinners. It is said that one day His wrath will be poured out upon his enemies and when it does, it will result in terrible eternal torment or utter destruction. However, the above scripture says no such thing. In the first place, notice the Lord will judge His people, not those who are not his people. Also notice this verse does not say what the outcome of His vengeance will be. He just states that it belongs to Himself, not us. When we study that scripture further, we see that that first part is a quotation from Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 32:35). We discover it is found in what came to be called the Song of Moses. Moses, just before his death prophesies to Israel, not the world, that they would rebel and do evil in the sight of the Lord and provoke Him to anger. Please note that this verse speaks of an entire nation who are called God’s people and he does not specify individual people. He is referring to Israel as one. When studying the Bible, notice how often the Lord deals with nations, tribes, and lands as one entity. The judgments are inflicted upon the entire people as a group, not on individuals. This is most important to understand when handling the scriptures. In the midst of this prophecy predicting God’s people Israel will fall away from the Lord and righteousness is the scripture, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." In this same song is found the scripture many Christians seem to be unfamiliar with, "I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from my hands" (Deuteronomy 32:39, NKJV). Our Maker follows that with extremely strong language which is typical of judgments against nations throughout the Bible. "If I whet My glittering sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the leaders of the enemy."

Now please note, we have here a prophecy from the Creator through Moses the leader of His people, that they would do wickedness which will result in them becoming enemies of the Lord. He would take vengeance upon his enemies with "arrows drunk with blood" and his "sword" would be wet with the "blood from the slain and his captives, from the heads of the leaders of the enemy." Now let me ask you this: if I end the story here and begin to preach "hell-fire, annihilation, and damnation," would I be rightly dividing the Word? The answer is absolutely not! Why? Because I failed to show the true end of His judgment. Read the paragraph right after the arrows and sword devouring flesh and you will see the final outcome of His judgment.

"Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people" (Deuteronomy 32:43). The ultimate outcome of His vengeance will provide atonement for His land and His people. This is the same people who He prophesied would be His enemies! The gentiles are everyone else in the world who are not "his" people and the scripture tells them to "rejoice." His vengeance brought atonement. You see the reason why vengeance must belong to the Lord is because only He can kill and then make alive again, wound and then heal. You and I can only kill. We do not have the power to resurrect, but He does.

You may say at this point, but He will not save all of physical Israel, He will only provide atonement for spiritual Israel, those who are born again. Those who teach this usually point out that only those who have the circumcision of the heart are true Jews or true Israel. If you will turn to Romans 11:26-36, I want to ask you a plain question: Did spiritual Jews or Israel become the enemies of the church or did physical Jews or Israel? It is abundantly clear that the "all Israel" who would be saved was clearly physical Israel.

"The Deliver will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel they are enemies but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:26-29).

Now, one may perhaps say, "Well, of course, the Lord will eventually provide atonement for the sins of His people, even though they may become His enemies, but do not carry this to the extreme of including pagans, heathen, sinners, the ungodly, etc." I would say to that statement, "Be careful who you think are ’God’s people.’"

"It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord; I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth. The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil; they shall answer Jezreel (God will sow). Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; then I will say to those who were not My people, ’You are My people’! And they shall say, ’You are my God’"! (Hosea 2:21-23). Do you really want to get on the judge’s seat and conjecture who will receive mercy and who will not? Do you really want to judge our Maker and tell him who will respond to His love and mercy and who will not? The Bible is absolutely full of these kinds of examples where He speaks very strongly using language of wrath, judgment, and destruction. Remember, however, He Who kills, even though one’s theology may deny it, can make alive; He can heal and He can take the clay and remold it. The Bible makes it very plain that "in Adam" all would die (1 Corinthians 15:22). Be careful, before you say that when He shows His mercy to all, that not all will live and be healed. Despite what John Calvin has carved in stone, the Lord will have mercy upon all. That mercy will bring deliverance. The following scripture is another one that warns us not to be dogmatic about consigning multitudes into abysses of torture that would make Hitler look like a mercy killer or to conclude that our Father created a huge garbage landfill where He dumps all of His mistakes. He makes no mistakes, even though we cannot see his wisdom in some of His creation.

"For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:32-33). His ways and judgments are past finding out, yet does not each denomination have formulas, dogmas, doctrines which spell out what God will do to the "unrighteous"? Do they not tell you whether you are in good standing or not? Do they not warn you of the consequences of violating their doctrines? They most certainly do, despite the fact the scriptures warn, "Judge nothing before the time."