The Executive Judgment

During the Middle Ages there was a strong tendency to portray God

as a severe, punitive Judge. Today the tendency is to describe Him as

a loving, permissive Father who never punishes His children. Yet, love

without justice will turn into chaos and lawlessness, and justice without

love will become oppression and subjugation. God’s judging process

is a perfect blend of justice and mercy, both of which derive from His

unconditional love.

The executive judgment is God’s final and irreversible punitive

intervention in human history. Limited punitive judgments occurred,

for example, in the casting out of Satan and his rebellious angels from

heaven (Rev. 12:7–12), the driving out of Adam and Eve from the

Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), the great Flood (Genesis 6–8), the destruc-

tion of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19, Jude 7), the death of the

firstborn in Egypt (Exodus 11, Exodus 12), and the deaths of Ananias

and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–11). So, it is no surprise that there also will be

an executive judgment of the wicked at the end of human history.

Read 2 Peter 2:4–6 and 2 Peter 3:10–13. How do these texts help us

understand the nature of the final executive judgment? How do

they imply the idea of the completion of judgment as opposed to its

going on forever, which would be a perversion of justice and not an

expression of it?

“God’s goodness and long forbearance, His patience and mercy exer-

cised to His subjects, will not hinder Him from punishing the sinner

who refused to be obedient to His requirements. It is not for a man—a

criminal against God’s holy law, pardoned only through the great sac-

rifice He made in giving His Son to die for the guilty because His law

was changeless—to dictate to God.”—Ellen G. White, Manuscript

Releases, vol. 12, p. 208.

All that God could have done to save humanity from being eternally

lost He did, even at a great cost to Himself. Those who are lost ulti-

mately made choices that led them to this unfortunate end. The idea

that God’s judgment on the lost, even the annihilation of the lost (as

opposed to eternal torment), goes against the character of a loving God

is simply wrong. It’s God’s love, and God’s love alone, that demands

justice, as well.

What does the Cross itself teach us about what God was willing

to do in order to save everyone who would be saved?