Sections one through four of the Revealed Truth Bible study deal with fundamentals for sound Biblical understanding. Section five begins a comprehensive study of Biblical Blood Covenant. The covenant study concludes with six lessons on the Righteous Judgment of God (the next section) and its role in God’s eternal covenant.

God has always dealt righteously with His people as well as all others. He doesn’t deal righteously with those who follow Him and unrighteously with those who do not. That means even His discipline and severe judgments are executed righteously or fairly. Further, God always operates according to His covenant directives. Therefore, He self-limits Himself to exercising His judgment over people with whom He has gained authority to do so.

The children of Abraham were God’s people by covenant. God’s covenant with Abraham would be developed in stages until it was finally fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. With each stage of development, the covenant was expanded and the people deepened their commitment to the covenant. At the same time, God’s authority to judge His people was strengthened. The covenant development process continued until the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ was great enough to permit the extension of God’s legal covenant jurisdiction to the whole world. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on all mankind, God’s legal authority was complete and His system of justice, the Righteous Judgment of God, was enacted to judge both the good and evil deeds of all people.

The timing of the enactment of the Righteous Judgment of God is a controversial Bible topic. This is certainly true of my position that the Righteous Judgment of God is God’s system of judgment that was initiated shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that it is the justice system that rules over all of mankind to this day and will rule forever.

Paul defines the Righteous Judgment of God for us in his letter to believers in Rome.

5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in [the present, not for, the future] the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
6 who will render to each person according to his deeds:
7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;
8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation [this is wrath that leads to destruction].
9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil [does not obey God’s commandments], of the Jew first and also of the Greek,
10 but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good [obeys God’s commandments], to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
11 For there is no partiality with God. (Romans 2:5-11)

Paul’s instruction to believers in Rome, and to us as well, is that the Righteous Judgment of God is a system of justice where every person receives judgments according to their deeds, whether evil or good. To those whose deeds are evil, i.e., are not in keeping God’s commandments, their reward is wrath and indignation leading to eternal death. Conversely, the reward to those who persevere in doing good by keeping the commandments is glory, honor, immortality and eternal life.

The Righteous Judgment of God, however, does not complete the covenant narrative. There is yet another component that is necessary for the Righteous Judgment of God to be in place and to stand. I am referring to an event that was necessary for God to exercise His righteous judgment on all of mankind. That event is marked by the death of Jesus the cross. Jesus’ death and resurrection completed (fulfilled) the Abrahamic covenant, the eternal blood covenant God made with Abraham.

The prerequisite for enacting the Righteous Judgment of God is called the Day of the Lord. The fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant cleared the way for the Day of the Lord  and the Righteous Judgment of God to be introduced into the history of the world. The sequence is first the Day of the Lord and then the Righteous Judgment of God. The Righteous Judgment of God and the Day of the Lord cannot exist independently. They are bound together and completely intertwined. It is correct to say that the Day of the Lord leads to and enables the Righteous Judgment of God.

In the following series of lessons, we are going to explore the inherent features and the timing of the Day of the Lord. My position is that the Day of the Lord is an event that is not associated with either the Rapture or the Second Coming of Christ. I am, of course, clearly aware that this viewpoint stands at odds with accepted theology, and yet I cannot ignore what I believe the Bible clearly teaches.

Let me point out that I believe the generally accepted theological doctrine of placing the Day of the Lord in in an undetermined future timeframe can be called into serious question. It is incredible that we are asked to believe that Jesus has been keeping a record of every person’s sins for the past two thousand years. Consider that Jesus died on the cross so that all sinners would be able to turn away from sin and live lives dedicated to following His commandments. Also consider that it is the nature of mankind to act in ways we perceive as being in our best interest. As sinners we see our best interest as that which is contrary to God’s will. And it is true that disobedience that is not disciplined that at the time of the rebellious act has little or no effect on correcting behavior. Even small children know that if disobeying their parents does not result in discipline, they will continue their undesirable behavior and more also. Yet, we are asked to believe that God, who declares Himself to be our Father, would not know the nature of us who He created, and rather than provide punishment or discipline at the time of our actions, He would keep a record of our rights and wrongs for our entire life in the hope that we would change our rebellious behavior before we die. I can’t believe that for a minute. He created us and He knows us better than we know ourselves. It makes infinitely more sense, at least to me, that He would create a system of justice where each person is rewarded for their behavior at the time an act is committed, either good or evil. This is what the Bible teaches.

9 “Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.” (Deuteronomy 7:9-10)

He says He will repay those whose acts are evil to their faces. I take that to mean at the time of the act. I believe the same is true for those who love Him and keep His commandments. He goes on to speak of the blessings and curses of the covenant i.e., the Righteous Judgment of God.

11 “Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.
12 “Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers.
13 “He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you.” (Deuteronomy 7:11-13)

Note that the blessings detailed above are things that will take place while the person is alive. For instance, it would make no sense to bless the fruit of someone’s womb after they are dead. After detailing the many wonderful blessings for those who keep His commandments, he describes the curses for those who do not keep them.

11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today;
12 otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them,
13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies,
[The above blessings happened while they were alive.]
14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
17 “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’
19 “It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17, 19)

For those who keep His commandments, there are wonderful blessings, but there are severe curses for those who do not keep His commandments. That is God’s righteous judgment. And God’s instruction to the people of the nation of Israel was that He would repay those who do not keep His commandments with the curses of the covenant, but He would reward those who keep His commandments with the blessings of the covenant.

Although God is the creator of all things and can do whatever He wants, when He wants and where He wants, He chooses to confine His interaction with His created beings, us, to be in accordance with the dictates of the His eternal covenant. So we can say that the instructions above were to the nation of Israel and that His self-imposed jurisdiction did not extend beyond Israel at that time. The perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which was sufficient to cover the sin of all mankind, meant that the covenant, including the blessings and curses of the Righteous Judgment of God, could be expanded to the entire human race. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit opened the door for God’s jurisdiction to be expanded to all people, not just the Israelites.This expansion of God’s justice according to His covenant was enacted on the day of Pentecost when God poured out His Spirit on all flesh (human beings) as stated in Joel and Acts, not just the 120 men and women in the upper room.

“It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind.” (Joel 2:28)

‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour fourth of my Spirit on all mankind’ (Acts 2:17)

The King James translation reads ‘all flesh’ instead of ‘all mankind’ in both verses.

The Day of the Lord and the Righteous Judgment of God are bound together so that one does not stand without the other. With what has been presented in this lesson as a backdrop, we’ll look at the Biblical evidence for the Day of the Lord in the next lesson.

May you be endued with wisdom and understanding as you continue,

Peter Giardina