Neither the expression, "general judgment" nor the idea conveyed by that expression is found in the Scriptures. Dr. Pentecost well says: "It is a mischievous habit that has led the Christian world to speak of the judgment as being one great event, taking place at the end of the world, when all human beings—saints, sinners, Jews and Gentiles, the living and the dead—shall stand up before the Great White Throne and there be judged. Nothing can be further from the teaching of the Scriptures."
Scripture speaks of five judgments, and they differ in four respects: subject, time, place and result of the judgment.
As to Believers
Time: A.D. 30
Place: The cross of Calvary
Result: Death for Christ and justification for the believer
"And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified Him" (John 19:17-18).
"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree"
(1 Peter 2:24).
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 3:13).
"For He (God) hath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him"
(2 Cor. 5:21).
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).
The Judgment of Sin in the Believer
Time: Anytime
Place: Anywhere
Result: Chastisement
"For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (1 Cor. 11:31-32).
"If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" (Heb. 12:7).
The Conduct, or Works of Believers Judged
Time: When Christ comes for His own
Place: In the air (1 Thess. 4:17; Matt. 25:24-30)
Result: To the believer, reward or loss of reward, "but he himself shall be saved"
Although Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and God has entered into covenant with us to "remember them no more" (Heb. 10:17), every work of the believer must be judged.
"Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto Him. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:9-10 1w).
"We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ" (Rom. 14:10).
Both passages are limited by the context to believers. In the first, the apostle has just written of us as in one of two states: either we are at home in the body and absent from the Lord, or absent from the body and present with the Lord language which could not be used of unbelievers. "Wherefore we make it our aim," either with the Lord, or in the body, to please Him, "for we must all be made manifest" (2 Cor. 5:8-9).
In the other passage the word "we" limits it to believers. The Holy Spirit never commingles the saved and the unsaved. Then, lest it should seem incredible that a blood-cleansed saint could come into any judgment whatever, Paul quotes from Isaiah to prove that "every knee shall bow," and adds, "so then everyone of us shall give account of himself to God."
The following passage gives the basis of the judgment of works: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:11-15).
The following passages fix the time of this judgment:
"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works" (Matt. 16:27).
"And thou shalt be blessed... for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just" (Luke 14:14; 1 Cor. 15:22-23).
"Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts" (1 Cor. 4:5).
It is comforting, in view of that inevitable scrutiny of our poor works, to learn that in His patient love He is so leading us now that He can then find something in it all for which to praise us.
"Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Rev. 22:12).
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day" (2 Tim. 4:8).
The Judgment of the Nations
Time: The glorious appearing of Christ (Matt. 25:31-32; 13:40-41)
Place: The Valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:1-2, 12-14)
Result: Some saved, some lost (Matt. 25:46)
Basis: The treatment of those whom Christ calls, "My brethren" (Matt. 25:40-45; Joel 3:3, 6-7)
These "brethren" are believed to be the Jewish remnant who have turned to Jesus as their Messiah during "the great tribulation" which follows the taking away of the Church, and is terminated by the glorious appearing of our Lord (Matt. 24:21-22; Rev. 7:14; 2 Th. 2:3-9). The proof is too extensive to be put forth here. It is evident, however, that these "brethren" cannot be believers of this dispensation, for it would be impossible to find any Christians so ignorant that they do not know that acts of kindness to believers are really ministries to Jesus Himself.
As this judgment of the living nations is sometimes confounded with that of the Great White Throne in Rev. 20:11, it may be well to note the following contrasts between the two scenes.
Heavens and earth fled way
Three classes: sheep, goats,
After He has reigned 1000 years
The saints will be associated with Christ in this judgment, and hence cannot be the subject of it (1 Cor. 6:2; Dan. 7:22; Jude 14-15). In truth, the judgment of the nations have but one thing in common: the Judge.
The Judgment of the Wicked Dead
Time: A determined "day" after the millennium (Acts 17:31; Rev. 20:5,7)
Place: Before the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11)
Result: Judged, cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15)
Some may be troubled by the word "day" in Acts 17:31 and Rom. 2:16. In the following passages "day" means a lengthened period: 2 Peter 3:8; 2 Cor. 6:2; John 8:56. The "hour" of John 5:25 has now lasted more than nineteen hundred years. The scriptures also speak of a judgment of angels (1 Cor. 6:3; Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4).