The final judgment
One thing that troubles people about the Bible is seeing the judgment of Yahweh our Heavenly Father within its pages, particularly the end judgment. Though the idea of a final judgment seems uncomfortable, we actually unknowingly yearn precisely for His final judgment every day.
Let me explain (please?)
If I asked you…
Do you hope to live in a world where everything has been set right?
…you’d reply “yes” without hesitation (I hope). We all want to live in a world where oppression is gone, tears are no more, justice is completed, and evil is no more.
We strive to rid evil from the world every day, don’t we?
Well, there is a connection between judgment and justice.
In order for everything to be made right on earth, one would first need to judge evil and then correct everything that is wrong on earth, right?
If we consider how we would do it if we were in the position to completely eliminate evil ourselves, we’d find ourselves doing just that: judging and casting out evil.
Yahweh judges because He is just and good. Evil must be judged, must be cast out. To do otherwise is unjust and chaos.
“The reason hell’s destructive power is kicked outside the city is that it opposes the good and redemptive things God wants to do inside the city. To ask for God’s kingdom to come and hell to stick around is like asking the doctor to heal your body but leave the cancer, like asking for restoration to come and destruction to remain. It’s to ask for a contradiction.”
Karen Swallow Pri
Do you see how we’re yearning for this judgment event where evil is finally cast out, even if we don’t realize it or think we do (because it seems violent to our modern ears)?
“Hell” is simply all that is unrepentantly evil pushed out of heaven and earth after Yahweh has judged. That is what we’re yearning for and there’s no injustice in it —quite the opposite.