Driven by Eternity With John BevereSample

Eternal Decisions

The author of Hebrews referred to the subject of eternal judgments as one of six elementary stages of Christian teaching. Really think about that for a moment. Consider what “elementary” means in our education system.

The elementary principles of our education system are reading, writing, and arithmetic—the things you absolutely must know in order to move on to more specialized subjects. These subjects form the foundation of our education. This is what eternal judgments should be like for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ.

If we do not have eternal judgments firmly established in our understanding, then we will not be capable of building a proper life in Christ. It could be compared to trying to advance your high school or university education without being able to read, write, add, or subtract.

God has blessed me with the opportunity to travel a lot to minister for Him over the past thirty years. One thing I have found is that understanding the matter of eternal judgments is far from common. In fact, it is rare, and I’m even talking about deeply committed Christian leaders.

This is even worse when we see that the author of Hebrews writes, “These are all matters of which you should have been fully aware long, long ago.” As an elementary principle of our faith, eternal judgment is a subject we should know fully and completely.

Believers have not continued to emphasize this truth as the early church did, because when we see that word “judgment,” we think it means “condemnation.” But let me tell you what it really means.

The word judgment used in Hebrews 6:2 is the Greek word krima. The base definition of this word simply means “a decision.” Read through the verse again and exchange the word judgments for decisions. That has a much different feel to it, doesn’t it?

What we know then is that there is an appointed day—a day of judgment. On that day, God will make decisions about every man and woman who ever lived on Earth. Those decisions are going to be eternal decisions. God is going to weigh our lives, and the decisions He makes, based on His careful investigation, will be eternally firm.

These truths are foundational for all Christians. They will impact our lives forever.