The Day of Judgment will be applied to mankind in two separate manners. The first applies to the royal priesthood to those who attain to the first resurrection. They are judged so thoroughly in the present world, and respond to that judgment so correctly, that their sentence is to be raised and rise to meet the Lord at His appearing. There is no further judgment applied to them, as we note in Revelation 20:4-6. The Lake of Fire has no further jurisdiction over them.

The second applies to the remainder of mankind, to those who are raised in the second resurrection. They will be judged according to their works. Their sentences will vary all the way from a few stripes to eternal residence in the Lake of Fire.

To those who comment that no individual will be saved at the second resurrection because no person can be saved by works we reply that every individual, whether of the Church or of mankind, is judged according to his or her works (note II Corinthians 5:10 above).

Christ did not come for the purpose of preventing our judgment according to our works. Christ came to transform us so that our works will merit the approval of God. Any other viewpoint will lead the seeker into the corrupting morass in which evangelicals flounder in the present hour.

But isn't it true that Jesus said if we hear His Word and believe in God we will not be condemned?

Yes, and this is true of course. The believer who presses forward each day in the moral transformation that is the new covenant is kept without condemnation by the blood of Jesus. Such an individual will find his entire life has become one of judgment as the Holy Spirit guides him in putting to death the deeds of his body. His work has been that of maintaining an unswerving commitment. He or she is an attainer to the first resurrection of the dead.

We notice, however, that many believers in America of today are not maintaining an unswerving commitment to Jesus Christ. They are not denying themselves and carrying their means of execution behind Jesus. They are not living by His resurrection power. They are not sharing His sufferings. They do not understand that such is the only true Christian life.

"Brother Thompson, how can you say this of most church-attenders in America? How do you know that they are not disciples of Jesus?"

By their works!

They have been taught that Jesus loves them and has granted to them an unconditional amnesty that insures their eternal residence in Paradise. They behave accordingly. This is an unscriptural program and an unscriptural destiny.

Every human being on the earth will be revealed at the Judgment Seat of Christ. The Judgment Seat of Christ began in the first century, according to the Apostle Peter. The Judgment Seat of Christ will end when Christ and His saints sit on the great white throne and judge angels and the world.

To be continued.