T-2.XIII – The Real Meaning of the Last Judgement
March 5, 2021
In old school religion, God is taught to be a god of both mercy and justice. We were taught to think of them as both being necessary, with judgement having a negative and punishing connotation. According to the Course, judgement became part of the schema for the plan of Atonement only because of the separation. “Judgement is not an essential attribute of God…God Himself is still the God of mercy” (1:3, 5).
We are given more historical perspective on the separation and the plan of return to oneness:
“Just as the separation occurred over many millions of years, the Last Judgment will extend over a similarly long period, and perhaps even longer. Its length depends, however, on the effectiveness of the present speed-up. We have frequently noted that the miracle is a device for shortening but not abolishing time. If a sufficient number of people become truly miracle-minded quickly, the shortening process can be almost immeasurable.
This sounds like a mission-critical assignment that we are on! Humanity is on a course of destruction; however our current human systems are structured, they are leading us down the wrong road. It is easy to sit back and think that the world has always been a very violent place, and perhaps even more violent, so what makes this current era different? Why the need for speed-up now? Steven Pinker, the renowned social commentator and best-selling author wrote a book a few years back titled, ‘The Better Angels of our Nature: Why violence has declined.’ This was his exact premise: things are looking up for humanity. And I would not disagree that there are signs of progress. But overall, things are far off course. Mental illness, overwork, multi-generational family trauma, greed and materialism, ecological devastation, poverty and malnutrition, all of these things are increasing by many measures. The earth is supposed to be a place where we learn our forgiveness lessons in a loving, supportive environment. So what is our assignment in all this?
“It is essential that these individuals [those who become miracle-minded] free themselves from fear sooner than would ordinarily be the case, because they must emerge from the basic conflict if they are to bring peace to the minds of others” (3:5).
Reflection
We have an opportunity to seize here in this lifetime to be of service to this speed-up. Consider the magnitude of this task.
- Can you envision yourself as having an assignment here?
- If “the purpose of time is solely to ‘give you time’” then are you using your time here appropriately?
- What would you change?
The Final Judgement is not a task assigned to God. Rather it assigned to the Sonship (4:2). And it is not a judgement of us, rather it is a judgement of what we made. We evaluate the worthiness of our own creations (not in the technical sense of what we create in Heaven, but what we make/create on earth). We evaluate and cast aside our miscreations. This “right evaluation” as this section calls it is what the Last Judgement is for. This “process of division” is also the true meaning of the Apocalypse (6:2). Like the Final Judgement, the Apocalypse has scary connotations from our religious traditions. It is merely a disowning of our miscreations. This is not a process of the good (the wheat) being tossed to one side, while the bad (the chaff) are tossed to the other as described in Mt. 3:12. In fact, I love this contemporary translation of that verse from The Message bible which quotes John the Baptist. Read this looking for the idea of “right evaluation” and “process of division” as described in our current Course section:
I am baptizing you here in the river,
turning your old life in for a kingdom life.
The real action comes next:
The main character in the drama –
compared to him I am a mere stagehand
– will ignite the kingdom life within you,
a fire within you,
the Holy Spirit within you,
changing you from the inside out.
He is going to clean house –
make a clean sweep of your life.
He will place everything true in its proper place before God;
everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned” (Mt. 3:12, Message translation).
This is the Apocalypse, where we “preserve only what is good” (6:3). The Last Judgement is not to be feared at all, it is “really the doorway to life…No one who lives in fear is really alive” (7:3-4). No one who fears is really alive? These are strong words. Rather than tremble at that thought (recalling how fearful you may feel at times), consider it motivation to live. Consider Jesus “igniting the kingdom life within you” with these words.
The takeaway from this section is that we must lay eyes on our fear, how it has manifested into our miscreations, so that they may scatter and dissolve. This process we do internally, personally, but clearly we do it as a Sonship. “This is your part in the Atonement” (8:7). God is still the God of mercy.
In closing I will share another verse from the Message translation from the prophet, Micah. The book of Micah starts with God taking the witness stand and offering a quite scathing critique of his people, and all they have done wrong. The God of judgement is in full view. But it has a quite happy ending, which demonstrates just how truly merciful and loving our Creator is. Micah asks:
“Where is the god who can compare with You?
Wiping the slate clean of guilt;
Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear,
To the past sins of your purged and precious people?
You don’t nurse your anger and don’t say angry long,
For mercy is your specialty.
That’s what you love the most.
And compassion is on its way to us.
You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing.
You’ll sink our sin to the bottom of the ocean.
You’ll stay true to Your word,
And continue the compassion
You promised from a long time ago (Micah 7:18-20).
Suggested Practice
“God is still the God of mercy. He has given me time to find freedom from fear, and to teach my brother to find his own as well.”