Does God Judge Peoples?
Recently, I had listened to an interview of a fairly conservative Christian teacher regarding how the church should view national identity. During the exchange, he argued that God formerly judged nations but with the coming of the new covenant he no longer does so. Instead, each person will be judged according to his own sin or redeemed by his own faith.
I found this to be a weird argument for a couple of reasons. First, the idea that a man should be held accountable only for his own sins is not a new development.
But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Jeremiah 31:30
Throughout the Old Testament, as God is explicitly sending prophets to pronounce how he is judging nations, he is clear that nobody is being judged for even the sins of his own parent or child. Nobody is punished for the sins of another.
It is also strange when you look from the other side. During Jesus’s earthly ministry, he instructed his disciples to dust off their feet if they received a negative reception while going from town to town and that the judgement for those towns would be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 10:14-15). Wouldn’t that mean the whole town was being judged for the sins of the members who gave the bad reception?
While his death changed a lot of things, it did not seem to change this attitude of judgement against peoples who reject the gospel.
The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
Acts 13:44-46
After still more persecution was leveled on Paul and Barnabas by Jewish people of high standing in that region, God even inspired the author to use the same language as Jesus had in those verses in Matthew.
But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium.
Acts 13:51
Condemned Believers?
If a town, nation, or even people can be deserving of judgement, then what of those who believe in their midst? It has been clearly stated that none who believe will be lost. If so, how do we understand this?
There is a common teaching in the modern American church about believers living as “exiles”. The source I’ve seen most often given is 1 Peter, but the use of exiles/sojourners in this book is a normal use. He is writing to believers among “the Dispersion” (Jews who had been displaced into Gentile areas).
Not all of the exiles in this context are believers, but those who are (the elect) he urges to keep their conduct right “among the Gentiles” that they may glorify God as well.
Still, there is a sense in which we, as believers, are a distinct people as well. While living in wicked lands, it is very possible that the result of our first loyalty being to God (rather than people, nation, town, or even family) will be that we are cast out from the midst of it.
Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Matthew 10: 21-23
Even the closest of ties between men will not prevent the world from turning against believers. In those cases, it may even occur that believers must leave their own homes to avoid the most intense of such persecution. However, even should they remain, if they endure they will be saved. Whether geographically removed or not, a society who judges itself unworthy of eternal life will make outcasts of believers.
Friendship With The World
This may be a shock to many, who consider themselves already “exiled” among a wicked world deserving of judgement while living their lives mostly unaffected by that exile. The “unaffected” part should be a huge red flag. Those who have lived it know that exile is not an easy thing. If you are an exile who isn’t driven out of a land entirely, you at least must live as an outcast. If believers are living in relative comfort in the midst of lawlessness there are a few explanations of which I can think.
The first is that the culture isn’t so far gone as we have ascribed. Perhaps it is not time to write it off entirely just yet and instead redouble our efforts to make Christ’s commands understood. It is easy to write peoples off before we even try, but it is a very evil thing. If we know a judgement is warranted and do not resist the wickedness for which it is coming, we are the poison in the community (Proverbs 25:26).
This brings me to the second possibility. Perhaps we are living in a culture that is too far gone and have simply not resisted to the point of causing sufficient offense that we have been exiled. We worry that speaking too boldly, insisting too vehemently, or standing too firmly will result in our exile, so we’ve given way and made friends. This explanation is more horrifying than the possibility of exile by far!
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James 4:4
This explanation is also, sadly, the one I believe explains a lot of what we see now. The mainstream church in the West has created a man-centered “gospel” that insists upon nothing and simply “invites” people to repentance (at best). The wicked are content to allow most of what calls itself “Christian” while resisting only the “extremists” because only those they call extreme are offensive to them.
The church must stand firm. Perhaps we will see a revival or perhaps we will become exiles, but neither is a failure. Too often, we celebrate stories of towns in some far-flung town tearing down satanic altars in their villages, while speak against Christians tearing down satanic altars in our capitals.
