The Apostles’ Creed: God The SonSample

Jesus’ Judgment: 2 Thessalonians 1:5 When the creed says that Jesus will return in judgment, it states that he will come from there, that is, from his throne at the right hand of God. The idea is that Jesus is the human king over all creation, and that he will render royal judgment against those who have violated his laws and not respected his kingship and kingdom. We see this in Scriptures such as Luke 22:30, Acts 17:31, and 2 Thessalonians 1:5 and 4:1. The final judgment will include both the living and the dead, that is, everyone who has ever lived, including all those who are alive when Jesus returns. Every word, thought and action of every person will be judged on the basis of God’s character. And the horrible truth is that every human being will be found guilty of sin and condemned to death. The good news is that those who are united to Christ by faith will already have undergone judgment through Christ’s death, and will already have been vindicated by Christ’s resurrection. So, at the judgment, they will receive an eternal blessing and inheritance. But the bad news is that those who are not found in Christ will have to bear the full brunt of God’s wrath in their own persons. They will be cast into hell for all eternity. In our day today the doctrine of the last judgment is not very popular. I suppose, though, things haven’t changed very much, for I don’t think judgment was ever attractive to human beings. I would argue that it is absolutely vital to proclaim the judgment — that we ought to proclaim that there is eternal hell for those who do not put their trust in Christ. – Dr. Tom Schreiner One of the reasons that we talk about hell is because it’s the truth. And we dare not escape the truth. And there’s a lot of half truth and sometimes even ninety percent truth, but if you’re going to evangelize well, and you’re going to evangelize with the truth, you’ve got to talk about ultimate judgment. So we talk about hell and need to. One of the things we recognize about hell is it reminds us who is the judge. We are not; he is. It reminds us about personal responsibility. It reminds us about urgency. It reminds us about eternity. Lots of things that hell can come to us with that, simply, it’s going to be very difficult to approach evangelism minus hell. So we talk about it. But remember, we talk about it most of all because it’s the truth and we do not want to escape the truth. – Dr. Matt Friedeman Click [ here ](http://thirdmill.org/seminary/lesson.asp/vs/APC/ln/3) to watch The Apostles’ Creed: God the Son, lesson three in the series [ The Apostles' Creed ](http://thirdmill.org/seminary/course.asp/vs/apc) . Biblical Education, For the World [ thirdmill.org ](http://thirdmill.org/)