Major Bible Themes

So today we are not talking about the judgment of Israel and the nations. In fact, we are talking much more about the great white throne judgment. There are people who like to smash these into one judgment. And so we'll be underscoring the fact that they are in fact, not one judgment, but two judgments separated in time by approximately 1000 years, where We're looking at this as a whole series of all sorts of judgments.

So we covered, probably up through the flood, yea long ago. Cross we hit when we went over the judgments of Satan. Was that last week? Last week, I think. Tribulation judgment of the nations was a couple weeks ago, maybe three. Satan, Beast, and False Prophet we hit with Judgment of Satan last week. Great White Throne Judgment today. We'll get that today.

And then Purging of the Earth. I don't know how much you're going to go into that, Mike. Are you going to focus mostly on the new stuff and less on the smashing of the old stuff? The fiery burning up of the old stuff? All right, so there you go. Reminder of where we are in terms of time frame and a quick game of who's still in the dirt. Can we have a review game, who's still in the dirt? So when we come to tribulation, so Christ is coming at the tribulation, we get We have the the judgment of the nations for dealing with people who are alive and walking around on the on the earth at the end of the tribulation We're also dealing At that point we've got the church has been raised so they're no longer in the dirt. We've got the Old Testament Saints So they're no longer in the dirt. So at this point who remains in the dirt at the beginning of the kingdom? Who has not been raised? The unbelieving dead. Unbelieving dead.

That's what we've got at that point. And we know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, right? We're confident of that. Which means if we've got folks in the millennial kingdom who kick the bucket, who happen to be believers, are they going to be with the Lord at that point? after the rapture. So I think to be absent from the body and present with the Lord is strictly for those who are members of the church.

So what do you think in terms of people who come to believe during the millennial kingdom, where are they standing, should they kick the bucket during that time? To be honest, I don't know. Yeah, and I think that's right, that scripture is pretty silent on that, and I've run into a number of folks who are 100% confident that by the time we get to this Great White Throne judgment and everybody's standing in front of the Great White Throne that this is only a judgment of unbelievers That that's that's all that's standing before the throne You've still got this question mark around well, what happens to people who died during the Millennial Kingdom if they were believers and I see lots of authoritative like Schaeffer is firmly in the in the boat of We've only got unbelieving dead at that point in front of the Great White Throne. Hal was of the exact same opinion. I can't find the basis for it. So this is a question mark, I think. So Verne, when he presented revelations, also only unbelieving dead at this point at the Great White Throne.

But again, there's scripture silent on what's happening to these believers during the Millennial Kingdom. Okay, so by the time we get to unbelieving dead from all ages, most people are of the opinion, I should say, that we've only got unbelieving dead that are being raised for this. So, time period between the Tribulation, this judgment that's happening up the nations here, and the Great White Throne Judgment, which happens at the end of the Millennial Kingdom. What's the time difference? 1,000 years. There you go. 1,000 years. Simple math.

Okay, so this is a really quick review. We talked about this a few weeks ago. Hopefully it was conveyed clearly enough that this will be a quick exercise. So for the Judgment of the Nations, this is a... Well, I'll give everything away. This is... What's the time period for the Judgment of the Nations? When does that happen? For those who were in that class, what, like three weeks ago? When did this judgment happen?

Right at the second coming. That's right. So end of the tribulation. And the reason for it is Christ is setting up for the millennial kingdom and part of that is he wants to start with believers. Okay. Subjects. Who were those who were being judged? Okay, I can see the effectiveness of my teaching. All the nations? I'm sorry? All the nations. All the nations, but were these folks who were alive or dead?

Alive. Alive, that's right. So whoever made it out of the tribulation These are the people that are being judged, and it's okay. So the unbelievers that I don't want to start my kingdom with, they're still in the dirt, the dead ones. So the only folks who have to be judged are the alive ones. Are you going to be able to enter into my kingdom or not enter into my kingdom? The basis for that judgment, what are they judged on? whether they accepted Christ or not. Whether they accepted Christ or not, exactly.

It's with a view toward their works, but when we poked on that and looked into it in a little bit more detail, it became clear that the works were coming out of the life. Those who were doing the good works had no clue they were doing good works. They weren't notching their belts. They're like, Lord, when did we do those cool things? So this is on the basis of whether you are or are not in Christ and the result. So what's the end result of the judgment? They get to go in or not? That's right. So the folks who get to go into the kingdom, well, come on in.

The folks who don't, well, we're going to put you on hold for about a thousand years. Don't worry, we'll get back to you. Okay, so that's the judgment of the nations, and it's all about Christ setting up the Millennial Kingdom in such a manner as to, you know, we're going to take Satan, put him away. We're going to take all the unbelievers. We're not going to start with those folks. We're only starting with believers, with no devil to mix things up. And what we're going to find out is by the end of the millennial kingdom, we've got no problem finding people who are God-haters. Just gobs and gobs and gobs and gobs of God-haters. So all those folks who are blaming all bad things on Satan, well, they're wrong. Which I think is the point. It's to expose the sin in man, among other things. Okay.

So today we're going to go through the exact same exercise. and see you answer these same questions but for the Great White Throne Judgment. And so, in terms of time, Tristan, why don't you give us Revelations 27 through 11. Angry birds just popped up on my iPad. I will not be playing that while you read. Seven through 11. Please.

When a thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. In numbers, they are like the sand on the seashore. They march across the breadth of the earth and surround the camp of God's people, the city he loves.

But fire comes down from heaven and devours them. and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them."

Okay, so we know that this happens a thousand years later, after The Beast and the False Prophet have been thrown into the Lake of Fire, which is a completely different scenario as the Judgment of the Nations. Also interesting in this, I don't know if you can cast your minds back to 2001 when Verne went over Revelations, quite a while ago, roughly a decade. He brought up an interesting point in this particular verse, which is that heavens and earth fled away.

So we've got a great white throne judgment. We have Christ on the throne, and we're going to find out we end up with a whole mess of folks in front of that throne being judged. There's no heaven, there's no earth, there's no distraction. Everybody is very intensely focused on exactly what's going on here. Kind of an interesting perspective. Okay, so now we're going to find out, Courtney, who are the subjects of this judgment. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne.

And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. them according to their deeds. Okay, so who ends up getting judged?

The dead. All the dead. Who was judged in the judgment of the nations? They're all living, right? Here we've got all dead. I'm beating this point to death because apparently there's a ton of controversy about whether these are in fact separate judgments. And it's really clear from scripture they're separate judgments.

Yeah? Well, I was wondering, in the tribulation period, the people who say they're martyred and they die because they don't accept the mark of the beast and they're killed, and then there are people who You definitely won't believe in Jesus, and they stay alive, some of them, until the very end of the tribulation. What is going on as far as, say you didn't believe in Jesus right up to the last day of the tribulation, They won't go into the Kingdom. Do they die?

Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes complete sense. And we can actually go back to find out what happened to these poor cats. In Matthew 25, 34. I think 34 is going to be what happens to the sheep. We want to find out what happens to the goats. So let's try.

These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. depart from the accursed ones into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. So they're not kicking back watching TV waiting for the end of the millennial kingdom. They may actually be the first entrance into the eternal fire in advance of Satan and the beast. I'm thinking everybody is very in the white throne of judgment.

Somehow those people be there at that also? No, those people were already dealt with a thousand years prior. Okay. So yeah, Matthew 25, 41 says pretty clearly into the lake of fire. They were alive when they were judged. The great white throne is those who died. Okay, that cleared it up. Cool. Goodness has been done. Alright, so the basis for which these folks were judged, we're going to look at a couple of books. And we'll start with the Book of Life, and that's to you.

Oh, let's go Revelations 20, verses 12 and 15, individually. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And if anyone's name is not found written in the book of life, he is thrown into the lake of fire.

Okay. So, the basis on which they're judged is by what's in these books. So, very, very objective. You're written in the book of life, or you're not in the book of life. It's not, you know, 95% of my life was pretty good and therefore I'm sad. I guess it's not a graded course, it's pass-fail is what this class is.

The Book of Life ends up being a really interesting thing to look into. What you'll find if you do a study of the Book of Life is that It's mentioned a number of times throughout scripture. All the names were written in there before the foundations of the earth. And you never see anybody get written into the Book of Life anywhere in scripture. You see people blotted out. And so, we'll just look at a few examples of that.

So, Nick, if you could do the Exodus passage, 32, 32 and 33. But now, if you will, forgive their sin. And if not, please blot me out from your book which you have written. The Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. Which is interesting. He doesn't say, whoever sinned against me, I'm not going to write their name in the book. It is, they're already in the book. They're not going to end up making it past this great white throne judgment. And yet, they're in the book. up until the point he's blotting them out.

Revelations 3-5, Steve, nice to see you among the living. Thank you. Oh, did you call me? Oh, I did. Revelations 3-5, please. I'm getting organized here. And I'll stall for you here. When Vern was teaching Revelations, he brought out another point along here, which is about this book of life that back in the day, each town had their own book of life that they maintained. And this was the listing of all the inhabitants of that town. And when somebody moved away from the town, you just sort of blotted them out. So this was a concept that they understood at that time a lot better than we understand today.

Did I buy you enough time? Sorry, tell me which one you want. Revelations 3 verse 5. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the book of life but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Okay, so some folks still get blotted out. That seems pretty good to me. That's right. It is cool.

How about Psalm 6928? We're going to have bad news here again for somebody. I guess that's to you, Ellen. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous. Yep, that's it. And so these are folks who have caused the author of this psalm David, a ton of distress. And so he's asking Lord, may they be blotted out from the book of life. Now he says, don't write them into the book of life.

And this is another point of some controversy, albeit not of, you know, tremendous importance, which way it ends up going. But I don't understand why there is controversy about whether people are written into the book of life as they believe, versus blotted out if they die when they don't. Because scripture is constantly talking about blotting people out, which means they must have been in there.

Steve? I kept noticing that this phrase, he who overcomes, comes up a lot positionally and conditionally, and based on what we do, What do you think that is addressing? He who overcomes. Yeah, that's actually a really good question and one where I don't have a really good answer. Mike? I think he who overcomes is just one who believes. And the reason is because of their position in Christ who is the overcomer. I have overcome the world, I have overcome sin. I think that's why. Satisfactory? There's a whole group of believers though that have a... Watchman Nee was one of them. That he wrote a book about the overcomers. He laid out all this criteria that a Christian needed to do to become an overcomer. Which was, he went from grace to law in a hurry. Yeah, that's right.

We definitely see folks who overcame during the tribulation, those who came to believe. And when you see Christ talking to these folks at the judgment of the nations, he's like, you know, you were blessed, come on in, because, and he doesn't say because you overcame, but he does say, you know, you took care of my brethren. And these being, you know, the 144,000 Jews during a time where If you didn't take the mark of the beast, you were in a really bad place.

So it's clear they were overcomers. That judgment's ultimately because they're believers, but because they're believers, they're able to overcome. I guess what I'm thinking behind that question is that most people are probably going to think that there's a lot of something they're going to do to overcome. we will overcome that type of mentality. It's easier to fall into that.

I think so, but if you do look at that judgment of the nations when Christ says, you did all these wonderful things. The response wasn't, yeah, we know it, we totally overcame. It was, Lord, when did we do these things? So it's clear it was coming out of the life, not out of, you know, people putting notches on their belt. Okay. So let's look at a couple on the other side. And let's actually do the Luke 10, 21 first, if you don't mind, Russ. Yeah, you better. I mixed it up on you. No problem.

These are, we talked about this a few weeks ago, these are the disciples coming back, I guess the 70 coming back after Christ sent them out to go take the kingdom message to everybody. And these folks are just completely stubbed saying, you know, even the devils are shrinking from us at the mention of your name and Christ is trying to refocus their energies on the appropriate context. Your name is enrolled in heaven. Yeah, and my translation is recorded in heaven, with the implication being, you know, it's written down in heaven. And these folks, at this point, they have not believed that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, right? Their names are already recorded.

Some folks who have believed the saving gospel, though, are in Philippians 4.3.

And those folks... I'm really mixed up. I'm going to read this myself. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the course of the gospel. together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are written in the Book of Life.

So we've got folks in the Book of Life who are believers here, which ends up being pretty cool. What's interesting is this says they're written in. Everybody's written in. It's the summer blot of that, right? Yeah, exactly right. So this sounds like they're written in there. Well, their names are written in, but it's not that they're current, that they just got written in 35 seconds ago. Yeah, it's very cool. Okay, so that takes care of the Book of Life.

And the judgment here is, are you in the Book of Life, or are you not in the Book of Life? And the critical The point is, are you or are you not a believer? That's the basis on which you're being written or blotted out of the book of life if in fact you are an unbeliever. But it's interesting that What's discussed is not one book. It's not, you know, the pass-fail book.

It's books. And so if you look, he opened up the books. And so we've got a book of life. That's cool. So the question is, what's this other book by which they're being judged? And we find out it's a book of works. So, Mike, let's do Revelations 20, 12 through 13. And I saw the dead small and great. And another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them and they were judged each one according to his works. Which I think is really interesting.

So we've got a couple of books, we've got a book of life, but all these folks are being judged on their works. Why do we think we're not content with just judging based upon the Book of Life? Why does Christ go off and start looking at their works? Any guesses? Excuse me, the degree of reward that they will receive?

So there is a judgment that's known as the Bema Judgment. And the Bema Judgment is for believers only. And there is a look at the works of the believer in terms of rewards in heaven. The Great White Throne Judgment, unfortunately, looks to be a judgment entirely about condemnation. not about reward.

And we're going to find out that these poor folks end up getting chucked into the lake of fire with the beast and Satan, and that this is truly an awful place. So, you know, Steve? I didn't want to interrupt you. Does this somehow connect back through the law? You know, people live according to law rather than grace. So based upon that, are going to be judged according to law. Is that kind of what this is doing? I think that's exactly what this is doing. And we'll take a look at a few passages in Romans that pull that out.

But what's interesting to me is that this isn't Christ just saying, you're in the book, you're not in the book. which means, you know, you're going in the lake of fire or not. This is Christ saying, you're not in the book. And by the way, you think that you've lived a mostly good life, you know, relative to your peers, you think you're doing pretty good. Okay, let's take a look at the works and see if the works qualify you for coming to heaven versus going to the lake of fire. And so it's in my view, a very gracious act that, okay fine, you want to be judged based upon your good works, let's go look at your works and see if they measure up. They find out that none of their works are measured up. So, I'm going to read these pieces through Romans.

You're welcome to turn and follow along. Can I ask you one more question? Yes sir. This is the second that the lake of fire that the human's name was not according to the boy who was thrown in the lake. So as long as it says, yes, they're not recorded in the book, it sounds like some of these may not go into what this is. Agreed.

And to understand what's being said there, you have to understand the nature of a conditional sentence. So if I'm, this is in Greek, it's called a first class conditional statement. You've got four different conditions, four different classes of conditional statements, but we don't have to worry about that right now. What it comes down to is you've got an if part, and you've got a then part.

Simply having a statement that's constructed like this does not guarantee that you've got any folks in the if part. For example, just to make it really clear to everybody, if anybody at Holly Hills this morning is eight feet tall, then they're going to have to duck when they walk through that door. Does that mean that we've got folks who are eight feet tall here in Holly Hills? No. Okay, good. Alright, so Romans chapter 2 verses 14 and 15.

So this is talking about the Gentiles who do not have the Mosaic law to guide them. And it says, for when the Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves. in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts. And here's the key, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. So it's clear that the Gentiles, despite not having the Mosaic Law, do have a system of law that they try to follow. And they try to do the good stuff and they try not to do the bad stuff as best they can unless they're sociopaths. So we've got Gentiles, they're still under law, right? It's just their own law.

So moving on to Romans 3, 9. We're going to talk about the Jews. What then? Are we better than they, being Jews versus Gentiles? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, and the sin is made clear to them by their lack of ability to adhere to the law." And then when we go over to 19 and 20, we find out their state.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. And by this point in Romans, we've got both Gentiles and Jews under the law, whether it's the Mosaic law or the law of their own creation. We know that whoever, that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

So by the time we get to the Great White Throne Judgment, and folks are being looked at with an eye toward, how are your works? In other words, how good were you at adhering to the law, whether the Mosaic law or the law of your own creation? Every mouth It's going to be closed at that point because they're going to know. You know what? I couldn't even keep the law that I was making up. You're right. Right? You're right. Okay, so the result. Matt, can you give us Revelations 20, 14, and 15? I can.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Okay, so folks in the veil column of the pass veil at this point are going into the lake of fire. Another interesting study that we're not going to have enough time to go into is to look at what Christ says about the lake of fire. He speaks more adamantly about the lake of fire than absolutely anybody else.

We'll look at one verse Ruth, can you read Matthew 18.8?

If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. Okay, so Christ was by far the most emphatic about the eternal fire. And here he is saying, you know, if it's your hand that causes you to stumble, you'd be so much better off just whacking off your own hand than to let that continue.

I mean, do absolutely everything that you can possibly do to avoid the lake of fire. And the cool thing about it is, here's Christ saying, you don't want to go there, but he's also the one who's providing the complete solution so they don't have to. So at the same time, I mean, this is not your typical Baptist preacher standing up and giving people hellfire and brimstone, y'all are going to hell, right? This is Christ saying, please don't let this happen. This is heinous.

Believe on me. That's all you've got to do, which is a pretty cool arrangement, right? Okay, so the end result, Lake of Fire, The end result in the judgment of the nations, also like a fire, right? So that's one that's similar. But you can see that the basis, the subjects, the time, all different between these. So there you go. So now we're down to questions. Now, Russ, do we need to address your question from the beginning? Well, I was just wondering, because It just seems like in that thing we're discussing early in the first part of Romans where it talks about, it seems like it flows through different things about people who are doing bad things, but hey, don't judge them for doing those things.

And then in Romans 2.13, it talks about the ones who are So at the beginning part of Romans, Paul is trying to lay out that there's absolutely nobody with solid footing. So he starts with everybody knows about God. Y'all know about God. And yet you choose not to honor him. as God. So this point number one, there's no such thing as an atheist. Everybody knows about God, they just choose to deny Him. So from that point to the end of Romans 1, you've got what happens when you deny God, and it's just this slippery slope down to nothing but unmitigated sin. In Romans 2, you look at, okay, so let's talk about And let's talk about the Gentiles and how they stand with respect to law.

And we talked about that a little this morning where, you know what, they've got a conscience. And so their conscience is telling them what's good and what's bad. And therefore they understand the difference between right and wrong and still they're choosing some wrong. Then it goes to the Jew. And the Jews got the Mosaic Law. They're feeling really puffy. They're excited. We've got this thing. We understand this thing. We keep the law.

The point that Paul is making is that, in fact, no, you do not keep the law. You are so focused on looking at that guy over there who's sinning and saying, you're a bad person, that you're not looking at yourself. The point that he's making there is Don't judge him. Look at yourself first. You know, you who are doing these exact same things, don't judge him. So it's not saying, you know, don't judge him, you're great. Don't judge him because nobody should be judged.

It's don't focus your efforts over there. Take a look at yourself for a moment and recognize that you've got the exact same problem. You need a savior. Does that make sense? Yeah. It does. This is if I try to find Romans to 13. Yeah. For it's not the hearers of the law that are just inside of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. Yeah. I think there's a concept here that.

He judges men by their works. But what he's really saying to them is that those are the visible issues and the particulars that we can judge you by. But what the real issue is, is underneath the works, what causes them. And Romans makes it very clear that as long as The source of your life is the sin nature.

You cannot be righteous. And we're talking about the righteousness of God. A Jew could be even righteous in himself. Paul said, I was righteous apart from the law once. But in order to stay in the book of life, you have to achieve the level of God's righteousness. You can't do that. And so what God does is, I'm going to judge your works, but really what I'm judging is behind the works and the cause of the works.

And that's the guy that gets condemned. That's why everybody is not under law. They're under sin. And sin is the reigning principle. Sin and death. So what the judgment does is expose the heart of the matter. You see that? Because he says in 3, we know that whatever the law says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped. And all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." So even the law that the Gentiles make themselves, God says, okay, you make up the laws and we'll judge by your own laws.

I'm cool with that. The problem is that it exposes this thing, sin, that any man who's got any sense realizes, should realize, no matter what he makes up for himself, or what's imposed on him from the outside, he cannot comply. He can't do it. And you miss it one time, and you're unrighteous. One time. Right. I understand what you're saying, and I believe everything you're saying.

It's interesting to me how it seems like Paul, like within three chapters, I mean, he's saying those who follow the law are righteous. Chapter three, he's saying you're not. Well, it's because it goes from man's righteousness to God's righteousness. Oh, in three in three twenty one, he says, but the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed being witnessed to by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith. in Jesus Christ to all those who believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, not their own glory. It's God's glory and His righteousness is the standard and that's the problem. That's the huge problem.

Does the Bible address children who have yet to reach the age of accountability? I don't know what the age of accountability is. Oh, he generally about 12. 69. 69. He's only about 12, 13 years old when they really know the difference between right and wrong. I don't think that it's necessarily a matter of knowing the difference between right and wrong. We're saved based upon our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for us on the cross. A great example of this story is Verne Peterman. He tells about when he was saved. He's in the backseat of the car, four years old, and he asks his mom, you know, what do I need to do to be saved? And his mom's like, you know, you're too little right now.

Let's worry about that a little bit down the road. And he mulls that over for a while. And then that night, after everybody's fallen asleep, he runs into his mom's bedroom and wakes her up. OK, now I'm ready. Tell me what I need to do. And he came to believe in Jesus Christ at the age of four years old. And so he saved. So I guess I was asking Tommy and Cheek what the age of accountability is.

I don't think that there is one. I think it all comes down to, do we believe the saving gospel or not? We've got a bunch of kids back there that are saved. None of them are 10 years old yet. Yeah, that's right. That almost goes to thinking of the fairness doctrine. It has to be fair that they have to be 12 before or 13 before they're accountable. I don't think that's it.

I think the Lord is wanting that individual. He'll make that individual exposed to the gospel and be able to receive it at any age, I think. So it, you know, the last days, when the last one is counted, it doesn't mean that all 12 children below are automatically grafted or graded in or, you know, the Lord's going to be, He knows, and will make it apparent to anybody, any age, I think.

Yeah, what I will say is that the Bible, Before I jump off the deep end here, Mike's asking you. Go ahead, Mike. I'm curious as to when your name gets erased, because it seems like we all start in there. I think that there, and here we are now fully extra-biblical, right? Go ahead.

I think it's Romans 1, 19 and 20, when because of what we may know of God is manifest in them, the creation of the world whose invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so that they were without excuse." Right there, if you say, you know, I believe in Allah, I think you'd get out the eraser right then. But, having said that, there are plenty of people that fit under this category that sometime later in their life believe in the Gospel.

So is it right before they die? Is it when they die? Okay, so I think we are extra biblical here for the most part. There are two points in which one would get blotted out of the book of life. I think time number one is you die an unbeliever. Time number two, during the tribulation when you take the mark of the beast, and scripture actually does say that. So that one's stable ground. In answer to your question, Alan, scripture is silent about what happens when you've got a one-year-old baby who dies. On what basis are they judged?

I've just got to trust that God is a gracious God and that that's going to work out. I'll give you my answer for that. I was really strict, all babies go to hell, until my wife got pregnant. And let me tell you how I reconciled. I decided from reading the scriptures that the work of Christ on the cross was so complete that God can save anybody any way he wants to. So it's not my business to wonder about aborting babies and stuff. Because of the work of Christ, God can do whatever he wants. He's free. Now for me, there's only one way. I have to believe. Right.

But that's what I mean, that God will make it to that, you know, it's like in the deepest, darkest jungles of Africa, how the compassion, God will make it evident to him. They'll bring the gospel to him. That's what Romans 1 is. Yeah, well, that's his God. salvation through Christ. I think if that individual, God will make it apparent, whether it's a baby or whoever, it will somehow be manifested to them and they'll understand somehow.

I'm going to close us with prayer. We're well past that second bell and then we can continue our extra-biblical discussion. Father, thanks so much for this morning and this opportunity to look at you through your word, to understand your righteousness, and that it is you alone who are authoritative to judge everybody. We pray for those folks who are headed for that great white throne, that they would come to a saving knowledge of you. That's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.