My dear readers,

Answering Remaining Questions from Calvary Pandan Church Camp 2025 (4)

Question 1: Some of the solutions that man has created to combat climate change/to respond/adapt to the climate are very interesting, unique and seemingly yield lots of environmental benefits. Suppose we know that the world will be burnt up, and the world makes these solutions to delude themselves at their inability to save the world and combat their hopelessness. Can Christians still approach the solutions with interest, but for a different end/purpose, since we know the world will be burnt up? How should we approach jobs that have a sustainability focus? Can we view these solutions as what God has granted man the wisdom to come up with these ideas, or should we have a man-centred perspective that these come from man themselves?

Answer 1: Man's creativity regarding earthly things has always been God’s general grace and mercy He bestowed when He made man in His image. He did not destroy His image in man when man sinned against Him. God’s image in man was badly marred by sin. Love became lust. Patience became impatience. Man became sinful and totally depraved. The ability to understand God’s earth remains and allows man to design and create, which was part of being made in God’s image because God designs and creates too.

After the fall of man, this world became soaked in sin. Wickedness and evil abound. God will not let His earth remain in this condition. God will punish man and destroy their idolatrous works. 2 Peter 3:7 says, “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Everything that man made and created on this earth, from homes to bridges to high-rise office buildings, is reserved for destruction by fire. The basis for this destruction is man's sin. Man will not stop sinning on their own accord and will not destroy all their idols and places of idolatry willingly, which can only be accomplished by believing in Christ. God has to do it on man’s behalf as man lives on His earth, breathing His air and staring up in His heavens.

Regarding man's “creativity” in combating climate change, they apply the same creativity that has improved their lives since their fall about seven thousand years ago. Christians working in these companies or government institutions trying to improve climate change and reverse the order of things are no different from everyone else who create new things to improve lives. Everything we do for mankind that pertains to their physical well-being has an expiration date. God will destroy this world and everything in it. God has gifted Christians with a particular talent for something on earth, allowing them to do it with great interest. There is nothing wrong with doing what they are good at. But they must do them with a completely different perspective.

What they do for Christ and in Christ only will last forever, not what they do for man and of this earth. For example, a Christian helped design a green building with a genius solution no one has thought of; it cools the building with only energy from the sun. He won awards and accolades. He became famous and was invited to share his genius invention with many world governments. If all he does is talk about his genius invention with his colleagues and the people he meets in all the many nations, then he has failed them and the Lord who made him a genius. All his work will be destroyed as wood, hay and stubble. But if he has been sharing Christ in the process with everyone he meets, and tells them that God in Christ enabled him to create and design this work, i.e. sharing Christ, then what he does for Christ will remain and follow him when he arrives in heaven. Revelation 14:13: “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”

The genius solution he provided for all the buildings he designed will be destroyed when God destroys the old earth and heaven and replaces them with new ones. Isaiah 65:17: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” His genius is only good on this old earth. In the new world, his genius will not be relevant, like Noah, who opened the door of the ark after the global flood destroyed his old world. Whatever skills he and his sons had before the flood became useless after the flood, unless it was the knowledge of farming. Even in farming, he needed to adapt to the new climatic conditions of the new Earth.

Question 2: In 2 Corinthians 5:10, believers must come before the judgment seat of Christ. When will this event take place?

Answer 2: The phrase “judgment seat” in Greek is “be-ma”. The “judgment seat” is to be distinguished from “judgment hall”. The best Bible passage to help us is John 19:9-13: “⁹And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? ¹¹Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. ¹²And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. ¹³When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.” [Emphasis added]

Verse 9 says “went again into the judgment hall” because in John 18:28 Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin Council members brought Jesus to Pilate in the judgment hall. The judgment hall is called “prai-to-ri-on” in Greek. The judgment hall was the place where the trial was conducted. From the judgment seat, judgment was pronounced, and punishment was issued for all, guilty or innocent.

2 Corinthians 5:9-11: “⁹Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. ¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. ¹¹Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.” Verse 10 says that the judgment seat has Christ as the Judge. Does the word “all” in verse 10 refer to all human beings or “all” in terms of a particular group, like all believers only or unbelievers only? Is Christ the Judge of believers only, or does He also have the right to judge unbelievers? The answer is that He is the Judge of all humanity. Christ is the Judge of both believers and unbelievers. Therefore, “all” has to be all humanity, believers and unbelievers alike.

This is the meaning of “judgment seat” used throughout the Bible. God did not use “judgment hall” where a trial was conducted before final judgment. Christ knows everything about everyone. He does not need to put a man on trial.

Another thing to note from verse 10 is the phrase “whether it be good or bad”. The word “bad” is often translated as “evil”. It refers to the deeds done by unbelieving sinners. Also the phrase “knowing the terror of the LORD”, i.e. what the LORD might do to sinners if they are not believers, all professing believers must take heed to their own salvation and the salvation of others in their lives. They must do their best to live holy lives and persuade men. Who and what we are are all known to God. Who and what we are are also known to our own consciences. That God will send all who die in sin to hell is a fearful judgment that no Christian must wish on any sinner.

What and when is the judgment seat?

We know from the Bible that there will be two end-time global judgments. The first is the judgment at the end of the seven years of Great Tribulation, which will begin with the Battle of Armageddon and end with the destruction of this heaven and earth, before the Millennium begins. Jesus gave the parable of the wheat and tares to His disciples in Mathew 13:24-30. He explained the parable to His disciples who came to ask him in Matthew 13:36-43: “³⁶Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. ³⁷He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; ³⁸The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; ³⁹The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. ⁴⁰As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. ⁴¹The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; ⁴²And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

This parable describes the judgment of all believers and unbelievers, in mortal flesh, who survive the Great Tribulation. All the believers, i.e. the sheep, will enter the millennial kingdom in mortal flesh, and the unbelievers will be cast into hell.

The second global judgment, the Great White Throne Judgment, will occur at the end of the millennial kingdom. Revelation 20:7-15: “⁷And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, ⁸And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. ⁹And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. ¹⁰And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. ¹¹And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. ¹²And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. ¹³And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. ¹⁴And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” [Emphasis added]

The scope of this judgment is every human from Adam to the last baby born at the end of the millennial kingdom. The state of their bodies is the resurrected body. The believers will stand before Jesus Christ in their glorious resurrected bodies, and the unbelievers who will be resurrected from hell (before God destroys hell) will also stand before Christ in their resurrected bodies (the nature of their resurrected bodies is not revealed by God). Both groups will appear before Christ to receive their respective judgments.

Verse 12 describes Christ’s judgment of believers. The nature of their judgments is described in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15: “¹¹For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹²Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; ¹³Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. ¹⁴If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. ¹⁵If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” These believers in their glorified bodies will enter the new heaven and earth of Revelation 21 and 22 and will enjoy the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in God’s presence.

Verses 13 to 15 describe the judgment of unbelievers, also by their works; they are not in Christ, thus their works will condemn them; therefore, they will be cast into the Lake of Fire to join the devil, the Antichrist and the false prophet. Many of these would be professing Christians who claim to know Christ, but they bear no works, according to the Scriptures.

Believers will be judged first, followed by unbelievers. 1 Peter 4:17-18: “¹⁷For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? ¹⁸And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? “

Which of the two judgments best fits the wording of 2 Corinthians 5:9-11?

The judgment of Christ at the end of the Great Tribulation will only be on the people who survived, but not all humanity. The Great White Throne judgment will be for all humankind and is final.

Based on the tone of finality, wording and context of 2 Corinthians 5, the Great White Throne judgment is the likely place and time when the judgment seat of Christ will occur. The phrase “judgment seat of Christ” infers that the Judge is Christ and that those who will be judged, both the believers and unbelievers, since the function of the judgment seat is the pronouncement of judgment for both the guilty and the innocent. The Great White Throne is the name of the judgment seat of Christ, the final judgment of all judgments for all.

We must all check our salvation in these last days of great deception!