I'm often amazed at the way that other religions talk about judgement day. Some people think the idea is that the second you die God puts you on a scale and all your good deeds fit on one side, and all your mistakes on the other, and if the good is heavier you will have a billion years of joy, but if it slowly drifts to the bad you will suffer pain for a trillion years to come.
Seriously? That would be like a king grabbing a half baked pie out of the oven to determine whether the chef should be executed. You can argue that God knows all eternity and can see what you WOULD have become in your life, but it leaves out the whole point of why God does His work. "For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39). Judgement day should be a time for the Lord's purposes to be fulfilled. There are a few experiences in my life which have helped me understand what judgement day will really be like.
It will be a great day
The scriptures say "Behold, the
great day of the
Lord is at hand" (D&C 128:24). It will be great because the righteous have been looking forward to meeting the Lord and are ready to account for the stewardship of their lives. The word "great" means something big and momentous, and I want it to be as thrilling as the day I found a cell phone.
For years I delivered papers on my bicycle. One Saturday morning I nearly ran over a cell phone in the road. It was a little scratched up, but otherwise seemed to be functioning. This was in the early days when a small cell phone was a new novelty, and I thought my family was special because my dad actually had a cell phone similar to this one. It was not my dad's, though, and there were at least six houses that you could say were nearby. It was too early in the morning to knock on people's doors, and there was no way to know which house (if it was one of these) the phone belonged to.
Back in those days you couldn't lock a cell phone, and you couldn't stop someone else from using it to make long-distance calls (which were very expensive), so I decided to take the cell phone home to my Dad. I quickly finished the paper route and showed my father. He tried to look through the phone, but there were no saved contacts (that was a new idea at the time), and there was no history of past calls. My father called his cell phone with this new cell phone, but all it did was show him the number, not the name of the owner.
He called the cell phone company and asked them what number he was calling from. They informed him that the information was confidential. He explained that we wanted to return the phone to the owner, but they refused to even tell him the number of the cell phone that he was using to call them. I remember him saying in exasperation, "You mean if someone found my cell phone there is no way they would know the phone belonged to me even if they were my best friend?" The operator simply said, "Nope." My parents called a few of the houses near where I found the phone, but no one knew anything about it.
And so it was that a mysterious cell phone sat on our kitchen table. Everyone stood around it waiting. At some point someone would call it and then we would know the answer to the riddle. We excitedly sat in a circle around it inventing possible stories of who the cell phone belonged to and why it was in the middle of the road. After an hour or so we drifted away from the table, but the phone sat there in eager anticipation. We went and started a movie.
For the righteous who wait on the Lord the words Judgement Day give this same feeling of excited eagerness. The psalmist said, "And now,
Lord, what
wait I for? my hope is in thee." (Psalms 39:7). Many have sat around dinner tables imagining stories of what it must be like to live in the presence of God, knowing that no matter how awesome your story is, the real answer is likely to be even better. But waiting is hard. "And in that
day shall be heard of wars
and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s
hearts shall fail them, and they shall say that Christ
delayeth his
coming until the end of the earth." (D&C 45:26). After decades of waiting for the Lord it is natural to drift from conversations about the coming of the Lord and find yourself busy in daily life.
There is value to remembering the day of judgment will come. It helps us evaluate our lives every day to find things that we need to fix. The biggest key to having a great judgement day is to have a desire to be like Jesus. That will guide the choices I make and help me decide what my priorities should be. Judgement day will not be based on whether I have more good than evil - it will be based on what kind of person I have become. Was I the type of person that gave up on waiting and stopped trying to live the commandments, or was I the type of person that kept an ear out for the Holy Ghost to guide me to the things that I need to change?
BEEDLE DEE DEE BEE DEE DEE DEE
BEEDLE DEE DEE BEE DEE DEE DEE
This was before ring-tones, so it sounded like an ice cream truck had exploded in our kitchen. For one second everyone sat up. Honestly I had forgotten. It was an interesting movie and I didn't know what that sound could possibly be, and I didn't know why everyone seemed so thrilled about it. Everyone ran into the kitchen exclaiming "It's ringing! It's ringing!" There was a genuine fear that they might miss the call and lose their opportunity. My father grabbed the phone:
"Hello!"
"Hello?"
"Who is this?"
"Uh - I was wondering the same thing. Who is this?"
"This is the Crawfords. We found this phone and we've been waiting to find out who it belongs to!"
"This is Mr. Burgess. I've spent all morning looking for my phone! I finally went to the police station to report it stolen. The officer here just suggested I try calling it. I'm surprised to hear someone answer it!"
"And we're just as excited to hear someone call it!"
The following conversation was satisfying and exciting. When Mr. Burgess heard it was in the street a block from his house it was determined he must have put it on top of his car and driven off about 5 minutes before I got there. Surely other cars would have crushed the phone had it not been a bicycle that came across it. The phone was returned and that month the paper boy got a tip in his paycheck.
I still remember the feelings I had when I realized I had forgotten the phone would ring. I remember the shock from head to toe that something I knew would be exciting and would happen soon had suddenly occurred and I wasn't ready. I was the last to get to the kitchen where others were already dancing in excitement. I vow to not be caught off guard when I hear the sound of the Lord's coming: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God:" (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
It will be a terrible day
The coming of Christ is often referred to as "the
great and the
terrible day of the Lord" (Joel 2:31). This could refer to the initial coming of Christ at the beginning of The Millennium, or the day of final judgement itself. Either way the message is clear - it will be a great day for those that have been looking for the Lord, and a terrible day for those who have not repented.
It is a sad fact that people can sin, lie, or steal and get away with it. Sometimes you can refuse to confess and not be punished. We hear people say that we should whoop it up while we're young and do whatever your heart desires, but like Ecclesiastes 11:9 says "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these
things God will bring thee into judgment." The time always comes for an accounting, and it's not pleasant those who owe a debt.
My father knows about debts well. As a used car salesman he often makes contracts with people who don't have a lot of money. Typically he tries to work with the customer if the payments are falling behind. It's much better to keep the car with the customer than to try to clean it back up and resell it. Still some people refuse to make payments on the vehicle, and they refuse to bring the car back. A car salesman who allows that would quickly go bankrupt and cease to be a car salesman. For them Judgement Day is called Repo-Day.
One man in particular had been very argumentative about his truck payments. He had made three or four payments on the truck and then stopped. My father had called to ask him what his situation was, and most of the time he simply refused to continue the call. Once he told my father he wasn't sure when he would be able to continue payments, and when my dad met him on the street he said money was tight and he wouldn't be able to pay anymore. The truck was his, however, and he told my dad he needed the vehicle. My father explained that he could try to adjust the payment plan to fit his finances, but he could not simply allow the man to take a truck after paying a few hundred dollars. The man explained to my dad that if he came within 10 feet of his truck he would find out just how tough and mean this muscular man could be.
More phone calls and letters went unanswered, and after a year my father realized there was no further use in offering help. He called the police and explained that as was his legal right he would be repossessing the truck. Judgement Day had come. The man lived a little ways out of town, so before dawn the next morning my father asked a friend to drop him off. Then he waited around the corner to make sure the house was quiet in the dim light of the morning. To his surprise the man came out of the house with a large muscular friend and loaded several boxes of fishing stuff in the truck. Then they loaded a cooler of food. As they went back in the house my father realized this was likely his last chance.
He ran to the truck, used his key to open it and start it. At the sound of the engine the two men ran outside and for a second they saw my father in the drivers seat and knew exactly what was happening. Their faces contorted with rage as they hopped in the friend's truck to give chase. My father drove back towards town, but these two men apparently knew some short cuts. As my father rounded a dirt corner on a narrow road the friend's truck suddenly screeched to a halt in front of him. Both men got out of the truck and slowly walked the ten feet to my father's truck. The look on their faces told him they were angry and ready to fight. He started to roll down the window while quietly putting the truck in reverse. He waited until they were almost to his window before popping the clutch and goosing the gas. His truck jumped backwards and zipped around the corner as the men scrambled back to their vehicle. Once in the city my father drove the familiar road away from the car lot and towards the church. He hid the truck in the church parking lot where he guessed these men were unlikely to ever come.
A few hours later in his office at the car lot this man came in. He did not have his friend with him, and he did not look angry. In a resigned despondent tone he told my father that he was probably going to be violent that morning because he was angry and surprised. Now he was ready to talk. He had called the police to report the truck stolen and told them who had done it and suggested how the police should handle my father. They had given him a lesson on the legalities of the issue and scolded him for "stealing the truck by taking it and then not paying for it". He asked my father what his options were.
The fishing gear my father was willing to return, but the truck would only be returned if the man paid up the back payments which were missing. He promised he would restart the payments, that within a few months he would get caught up. He promised to send a check within a week. He made a lot of promises. My father explained that he would see the truck again only when the back payments were paid up. The man said it would be done in a week. My father never saw him again.
This man knew an accounting would come, but as long as it was in the future he could push it out of his mind. Even when there were signs and warning that he would lose his truck he ignored them. I suppose he assumed my father would eventually decide it wasn't worth his time. I think he thought my father would forget. But the sale of that truck was needed to keep the business running, and if my father ignored him he would cease to be a used car salesman. Likewise "do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so,
God would
cease to be
God." (Alma 42:25). The time will come when God will come to those who refused to repent and they will lose their privileges. Not just a truck, but they lose "glory and honour and immortality,
eternal life" (Romans 2:7). For them judgement day will be terrible, and when I remember my father's truck I commit myself to not be in that category.
We will confess his judgment is just
At BYU there was a unique teacher who structured his undergraduate statistics class in a strange way. Dr. Fields had this unique rule: The only deadline is the final.
Homeworks were assigned each week, but the only deadline for them was the final. The class project was something the students could do half way through the semester, but the only deadline was the final. Sections in the text that they needed to follow were clearly scheduled, but as long as everything was done by the final it was accepted. These rules were very clearly explained to the students at the beginning of class, and emphasized repeatedly throughout the semester. Few teachers employ this rule because they know exactly what happens.
The students invariably learn a harsh lesson on judgement day. Since I was a graduate student I didn't take this class, but I watched with fascination as the same story happened each time. A few students did the homework every week. Most of the students found the last week of class to be dreadful. Some students realized they had deceived themselves and signed up for the class next semester without even trying. They would be the ones to do the homework every week the next time.
The first day of the last week of class most of the students turned in homework 1. Then the next day a mass turned in homework 2. The day after a bunch of homework 3's were completed. Day four saw a couple of homework 4's. By day 5 there was only a trickle of homework 5's. A bare handful managed to get to homework 10. The grades were easy to assign - it was divided by how much work the students handed in.
What fascinates me is that although a huge chunk of the class found themselves in desperate circumstances that last week - almost no one ever complained. The students who had done the homework faithfully during the semester didn't complain that the other students didn't deserve a chance at redemption. And the students who were unable to finish the homework during finals week didn't complain that they were devastated. Everyone agreed that the rules were just and fair, and that their grade was a result of their own faithfulness or slacking.
When we stand before Christ it will not be like a court room where we hope to argue our way to a better grade. We will know exactly who we are and Christ will see us perfectly. "Yea, every knee shall bow, and every tongue
confess before him. Yea, even at the last day, when all men shall stand to be judged of him, then shall they
confess that he is God; then shall they
confess, who live without God in the world, that the judgment of an everlasting punishment is
just upon them; and they shall quake, and tremble, and shrink beneath the glance of his all-searching eye." (Mosiah 27:31)
The lesson I learned from Dr. Field's class is how foolish it is to assume I can repent at the last minute and God will somehow let me slide. I need to practice my faithfulness now so that I can be ready at the Final day. I know what God wants me to do, and I know what things I still need to repent of, and if I fail to keep my covenants I know it is my own decision. On the other hand I know that if I stay faithful the Lord will give me a good grade based on my efforts to live righteously. The syllabus is spelled out in the scriptures, and just as everyone else I must declare God is just.
God's mercy will be clear
These stories tend to be about times someone faced a terrible judgment, and maybe that's because it's easy to write stories where the end is decisively climactic. It's easy to think of stories where warnings were not heeded and the punishment was swift. The truth is that judgement day is scheduled to allow God to give us all the mercy we are willing to receive. Because we are mortal and limited these stories do not show the infinite patience God shows us. That means each story could be imagined very differently by thinking of how God would have handled it.
I know I personally pray for God's mercy... but all too often I am swift to deal out justice. I experienced this inequality first hand as a deacon in Sunday School. My teacher seemed to have a pet peeve for students who tipped back in their chair. I seemed to have a thing for irritating people with pet peeves. I made a point to tip my chair back and lean it against the little wooden chair rail guard that ran around the room. My teacher told me not to tip my chair back, and I would obediently set all four legs on the floor again. For 20 seconds, and then lean my chair back. After the fifth time of telling me to set my chair down I could tell the teacher was frustrated.
At this point do I deserve mercy? The answer is no, and when the teacher kicked the chair leg the lesson I learned was fully deserved. Still, when my head cracked against the chair rail and the air went out of my lungs I could tell the teacher felt bad. He apologized while I cried, and told me he wished he had acted differently. I didn't get mad at him - I knew I deserved it, and I made sure to set my chair flat from then on. Still the lesson I learned could have been taught a different way, and the teacher testified that God prefers to teach through love, and not fear.
Heavenly Father is the greatest teacher imaginable, and He will not have the regret my teacher showed. Even when we deserve to crack our heads on the edge of the chair rail he will use any other method that we are willing to respond to first. Nephi tried to explain this to his brothers: "Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his
voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small
voice, but ye were
past feeling, that ye could not
feel
his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of
thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide
asunder." (1 Nephi 17:45). Rough translation: God tried to be nice, and you wouldn't listen. God always tries mercy first.
We will be judged based on who we are
One of my good friends Tyler Payne shared a story with me that had a great impact. He said at one point his brother was struggling to follow the commandments and just when he needed family support the most he decided to leave and try living on his own. Tyler and his family were terribly sad - they knew this was not going to be a good choice, and that the friends he would go to were not the type of influence he needed. The morning that he left the family gathered together and knelt for family prayer. The mother simply prayed that their son "will learn that wickedness never was happiness".
This quote from Alma 41:10 is not saying that wickedness can't be pleasurable. It's saying that a person who likes wickedness cannot be a person filled with happiness. Lasting eternal joy comes only through the Lord Jesus Christ. His brother was making poor choices, but he still believed that he could be a good person inside and find happiness anyway.
All day the family prayed and worried. Late that night - very late that night Tyler's brother walked in the door. When met by his parents all his said was: "I have learned that wickedness never was happiness."
I don't know how he knew the exact right words to say, but Tyler's mother knew her prayer had been heard. This brother began to make some serious changes and became a better person. Do we care what problems he struggled with or specific sins he was fighting? The only thing we really care about is that he became a better person. He learned what he needed to follow the Savior. All of us will have made mistakes, and I can certainly testify that wickedness has not brought me happiness. If we change and improve our lives we can enter the celestial kingdom if we have become someone who can walk in the doorway of heaven and testify, "I have learned that wickedness never was happiness."
I will know what my own judgement is
When my son Thomas just two years old he changed dramatically. He realized that not only could he choose the cereal he wanted, he could say "NO" to cereal he did not want. He could say "NO" to a book he did not like, and he began to exercise his ability to reject or refuse things a way to explore his world. Thus began the "terrible two's".
One Saturday afternoon he drew a picture, and then was delighted to crumple it into a ball and throw it. He could do that - it was fun. But after a throw or two he decided he was done and went to play with another toy. Teasha informed him that he needed to throw his crumpled paper in the trash before he could play with the next toy. He looked at us and said "NO".
Now I'm a big fan of freedom and creativity, but there has to be rules and limits. This piece of paper wasn't important, but the fact that his mother told him to do something - that matters. So this was a situation were "NO" was not allowed. We told him he WOULD be throwing the paper ball away. Thus began a two hour ordeal.
Some of you are saying it's impossible for a two year old to be stubborn for two hours. You obviously do not have children. We used commanding voices, soft voices, cajoling, reverse psychology. We ordered while towering over him. We knelt and playfully acted like it was a game. We turned into a competition and sang a song about it. I kid you not - the boy simply stood there and said "NO" to absolutely everything. As young parents we were flummoxed.
So after the five minutes we both came to the conclusion that we absolutely could not back down. It was clear that a commandment had been given, and if we let this go it would undermine his ability to learn respect and obedience. After ten minutes it was clear that this was not going to be an easy fix. It wasn't simply that we needed to find the right way to ask. He was going to disobey no matter what. Consequences would need to be determined. We chose not to use physical pain (such as spanking) for this case, and we were ready to take turns if our frustration levels started climbing.
The rules were declared as follows:
All rules are to be clearly explained and followed
Either mom or dad would be by him at all times so that he was could not run off and play
He would be allowed to do nothing fun until the paper was thrown away
It had to be thrown away by Thomas himself with no help
He had thirty seconds to throw the paper away before he would sent to his bed
While in bed there would be no toys, books, or playing
He would stay in bed for five minutes and then be brought back to the piece of paper
When at the piece of paper a 30 second count down begins
The time spent in bed can increase each time he goes there
The rules absolutely cannot and will not ever change
One the paper is thrown away these rules end
Our Heavenly Father has laid out rules just as clear, and when we get to heaven there will be no excuse for us if we have not obeyed. "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated -
And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." (D&C 130:21-22). Our judgement will not be based on God's mood that day - we will all
After the first hour passed I had started to wonder if there was any point to it all. I had to face the fact that it was possible Thomas would NEVER actually choose to throw the piece of paper away. I knew it was within his abilities, and I knew he was choosing wrong, but somehow I kept at it in five minute increments. After very nearly 120 minutes of this Thomas came out, picked up the piece of paper, threw it in the trash, and ran past us into the front room. We allowed him to play while pretending our nerves hadn't just frayed to the edge.
I'm sure that in Thomas' mind we just super cruel parents, but I laid down the rules clearly and he knew them. The fact that it took hours for him to believe me is a different problem. When we get to heaven God will say to us, "the rules were clear, and you made your choices..." and I will know He is right. There will be no anticipation, no surprise, I will know what type of person I have become. This will be my judgement, to see myself for who I truly am. A happy judgement is to realize we are like Christ. "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which
he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when
he shall appear
we shall be
like him, for
we shall see him as
he is; that
we may have this hope; that
we may be purified even as
he is pure." (Moroni 7:48). The more I learn about judgement day the stronger my desire to learn about Christ and emulate Him. That will be the rule to measure ourselves by.
I do not currently feel like I am ready to be judged, and I am comforted by the fact that if I died right now I would still have time to try to perfect myself. The idea of judgement looms great and terrible, but since I have learned more about God's justice and mercy I feel inspired to improve myself. I know that I am not yet like Christ, but I have hope that with time I can learn the self-control I need to be pleased to stand in the presence of God to be judged.
