NOTES for Rev 15:4

The representation about the Judgment Day and the general resurrection was appropriate to most of the Jewish believers well before the coming into the world of the Savior. And this representation supposed that everybody comes to the Judgment, independently of the fact if during his life he belonged to the people of God or not. Such view on the Judgment was due, above all, to the understanding of the fact that the God of Israel is also the God of the whole world, and he will judge not only His people, but also all other peoples of the earth.

But under the light of the revelations of the New Testament, Christians began to look at the Judgment not quite as they looked at it and look at it the Jews. From the Jewish point of view, the Judgment is a process if not momentary, then in every case, more or less compressed in time, he supposes that the resuscitated come to the Judgment so that God sums up their life lived on earth and give the appropriate definition. For the Christian the Judgment begins with the coming into the world of the Messiah: indeed, Jesus says directly that the one who believes in Him does not come to the Judgment, but the one who rejects Him is condemned by the same rejection.

In such case we could call our time - the time of Judgment: because choice is possible until the day of the return of the Savior, when the results will be summarized. On the other hand, our time is not only the time of Judgment, but also the time of the Kingdom to come. One is connected with another: because the acceptance or the rejection of the Christ also means the acceptance or the rejection of this Kingdom that He brought into the world. And man does not come to the Judgment, according to His own words, not because he takes this or that decision, but because the decision to trust Christ also means the choice of the Kingdom, and the introduction to the life of the Kingdom eliminates the question of Judgment.

But if it is so, is it then any sense in general to speak about the Judgment in regard to the Christians? If we who call ourselves Christians were such in the fullness and till the end, then there would really be no sense to speak about the Judgment in relation to us, as there is no sense to speak about it in relation to those who in the Book of Revelation are called "participants of the first resurrection”, over whom “the second death has no power”.

In certain churches, such people are called "holy", although it would have been more exact to call their life example of the Christian righteousness (because "holy" in the books of the New Testament are called all the Christians without exception). But, since in our spiritual life we are rather often Christian only by moments, we join the life of the Kingdom from time to time, and most of the time we live the life of "this world", then we will have at the Judgment to sum up the result of this our dual and double minded existence. And there is only one means to avoid the Judgment: to finally become people spiritually whole and live only the life of the Kingdom. Or simply speaking, to finally become normal, real Christians.