God's judgements (part 1)

quoting more stuff, cos i don't currently have any original thoughts of my own :p plus i appreciate the wording/phrasing of these bites from an article on "The Four judgments of God", by Phillip Jensen + Kirsten Birkett, as published in issue #326 (November 2005) of the Briefing.

the first way in which God exercises his judgment is by letting us live by our decisions, a process described in romans 1:18-25...

We're so perverse that, even if we want to follow God's way, we fail dismally. But part of God's punishment for our perversity is to let us lead the lives we've chosen. That's why the world is in such a bad state that you wonder if there's a God at all. And so we invent the problem of evil, saying that a loving and powerful God could not possibly allow the world to be as it is. But it's evidence of God's love, his respect and consideration for us, and his justifiable anger at us, that he lets the world be as bad as it is. We don't want him as our God? He gives us up to our choice. All the worse for us.

the second has to do with specific punishments for particular sins, which we only know to be specific when informed so by the word of God (eg. the plagues being punishment on Pharoah/Egypt for not letting Israel go).

the third is the day of judgment ie judgment after death...

Judgment after death may be a fearful prospect, but the opposite -- annihilation -- is awful too. If there is only 'ceasing to be', then all your actions are meaningless. Any good you do is pointless; you'll end up in the coffin just like the serial murderer. If death is all, you may resolve the horror of judgment after death, but the cost is high: you create the angst of a life that is totally absurd and pointless.

so there is going to be a day when God will destroy the present world and create a new one where evil does not exist...

People often ask, "Why doesn't God destroy evil?" The answer is that he will. "Why doesn't he do it now?" The person asking that question ought to think carefully about what they are asking; for, when God destroys evil, he will destroy all evil. In everything. In everyone. In you.