Friday, December 24, 2010

The Nature of Judgement

I'm currently running through the scriptures with my eyes open for mentions of judgement--forgiveness, condemnation, etc... The other day while studying, a thought occurred to me that I hadn't considered before. Let me first state a few things that we know are true.

1. We will be judged by the same standard we hold others to (Matt 6: 12-14; 7:1-2)
2. Other people will condemn us (Matt 12: 27, 12:41)
3. Nothing that is hidden will remain so (Mark 4:22, Luke 12:2-3)

So, what if this last portion means exactly what it says? Perhaps judgement will simply consist of putting everyone all together and then opening to every one's mind exactly what everyone else has ever done. We will suddenly be extremely embarrassed about what we've done. We will look at the people around us and will know that they can see all the evil we've ever committed. While they might not personally speak to our condemnation, in our minds, everyone will be condemning us. We will find that we are uncomfortable with people who have not committed the sins we have, and we will seek out the company of people with whom we feel comfortable (and who are comfortable around us). We will view our own lives with the same judgement we've passed on other people--no longer able to excuse our own bad behavior (in an attempt to justify ourselves)--because everyone will know exactly what we've done.

In this scenario the role of repentance would be to erase from the collective memory those actions of which we have repented. Faith in Christ would be crucial here, because, even though we will remember the sins we've committed of which we've repented, our faith in Christ will assure us that other people don't know of those actions because His atonement removed them from memory ("I will remember them no more").

I recognize this concept leaves out some important aspects of judgement, but it seems to answer how certain aspects can be. What do you think?

1 comment:

Jess and Jen said...

Interesting perspective. I've never considered it that way and wouldn't have assumed your "peers" would be there observing. This sounds more like having others -- besides the apostles and prophets -- doing the judgments, and I don't know that will be the case. We are judged as we would judge others, but I would have thought that judgment was still done by the religious leaders of our day, with the Savior being the advocate. -Jess