Category In Depth

Die Once, Face Judgment

“People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” Hebrews 9:27. When most people read this text, they just take it to mean that the present life of every human is some kind of test that each of us undergoes, at the end of which we die and then face God to be sentenced with reward or punishment based on our performance. Is this understanding scriptural? What is judgment according to the Scriptures?

Revelation 20:5 – A Maliciously Inserted Delay

Scriptures state that Christ's kingdom that is to come on the Earth has a specific purpose. Christ and his proven followers will reign over the rest of the resurrected mankind for those thousand years and teach them righteousness. But one verse in Revelation (20:5) seems to contradict all the other Scriptures in claiming that the rest of mankind does not wake up during that time. What's the story there?

Scriptures, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scriptures indicated NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. Wherever indicated NCV, scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Image Credits - A scribe in action: By Artist is John White Alexander (1856–1915). Photographed 2007 by Carol Highsmith (1946–), who explicitly placed the photograph in the public domain. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; A bible manuscript with scribe entries in the margins: By Unknown author (Codex Vaticanus) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; Girl mourning in the graveyard: By Liam Daniel/Kindle Entertainment (Kindle Entertainment) [CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons; Judge Deborah: By Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons; The Martyrdom of Saint Philip: Jusepe de Ribera / Public domain