John D Manwell's Blog

I have had numerous comments about the topic of judgement. I believe this is a vital area in which clarity is needed. For this reason I am editing and re-posting some comments I made previously:

In brief:

1. I  mean ‘judgement to be when the government of God is manifested to correct or restore situations, or to halt evil.
2. The Bible is clear that God judges individuals, families, communities, organisations and nations
3. He often is ‘slow’ to act in judgement
4. The most alarming aspect of God’s judgement is that he hands us over to our choices

I am meaning judgement to be when the government of God is manifested, and when God intervenes to implement His will, it is judgement. I am thinking of God’s judgement which implements justice and corrects. Often people think in only terms of ‘punishment’ – but God’s grace always seeks redemption. Human acts of ‘judgement’ are often destructive or vindictive, but God’s judgement is corrective, health bringing and restoring. I think there is strong Biblical teaching on God’s judgement – through, and post The Cross of Jesus.

A few examples relating to this time – after the cross:
Personally – 1 Cor 11 – ‘individuals eating and drinking judgement on themselves.’
Publicly – Acts 5, Annanias and Sapphira lying in the presence of the Holy Spirit;
In choices and behaviour, Galatians 6.7 – ‘reaping destruction’ as a result of choices;
Globally – 2 Peter 3.9 – the coming judgement.
Romans 13.2 seems to be very specific about ‘rebellious people bringing judgement on themselves.’

All these examples seem to be prophetic warnings relating to judgement relating to behaviour in the present time.

The cross offers an escape from the wrath of God, and the judgement for sin. We have an obligation to warn of the consequences of sin. The consequences are temporal and eternal, visible and invisible. Our actions as individuals, communities, nation and church have consequences. I am convinced that the Lord of all is alive and active, blessing and judging, because His justice is perfect.

I wish the whole church would start to really interrogate this issue. As I explore the matter I find my own gaps, insecurities and shortcomings.

Early in the life of the Church (after the cross!) God acted extremely swiftly to stop what happened with Ananias and Sapphira, and yet today the Church is riddled with half truths and compromised living, and yet it could be argued that nothing seems to be happening. I feel that much of the answer is actually the message I have prophesied: God is starting to take action in a new way and the prophecy is a warning ( https://johnmanwell.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/a-new-tsunami/  ). Another scripture – ‘judgement begins at the household of God.’ We, the Church are obligated to assess our own compromise, half-truths and self indulgence, before we warn the nation that our national turning of backs on Christian principles will have consequences. The challenge to the church is extremely grave. The division and lack of humility of the Church is awful. The lack of being ‘the hands and feet of Jesus’, and mouth, of Jesus, is a serious issue.

God DOES give words and insight. To the extent that police officers have in the past approached believers for help – leading to serious trauma being averted in past cases. Of course, this does not get publicity for obvious reasons. The fact that large parts of the Church are more focused on a having ‘a great meeting’ on Sunday rather than stopping and listening to God might be one reason that he is not being heard. We are his hands and feet (and mouth). He is waiting for obedience, but the Bible is also clear that his patience will reach a limit. Sometimes we don’t hear Him because we have already decided what we will be willing to hear. The prophecy I have publicised is primarily calling for a return to listening, to obedience and it is a timely warning that God will be acting. How soon? I don’t know. I have been carrying this burden for 25 years, but I am starting to see the things that God showed me in the spirit in the 1980′s. What I am convinced about is that He has compelled me to speak out with the part that I have – with a strong measure of urgency. The whole answer will come through the whole Church.

The most alarming aspect of judgement is that God gives us up to our own choices. The inward looking indulgence of the western church will bring about its own implosion. The self serving addiction to credit and consumerism will become it’s own judgement. For a full generation, the British have voted primarily for the government that seems to offer the best standard of living. Our abuse of democracy is itself already becoming a self imposed judgement. Democracy is almost dead in Great Britain and no-one noticed. The anti-God pursuit of secularism which the UK has almost entirely converted to, is itself the time-bomb which will demolish religious emptiness, and expose our desperate need for the God of the Bible in public life and social fabric. The law of reaping and sowing has not been repealed.

Lord David Alton, within a stunningly clear presentation of the national need for Jesus, at one point quoted Martin Luther-King:

“Our lives will end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”

History gives us many warnings. One is this: in the 1930′s the early days of the rise of Nazism was typified by introductions of anti-god initiatives such as euthanasia, abortion for convenience, and sidelining of Christian authentic thinking in public life. When the Church remained silent, Hitler took great encouragement to believe that he would not face much opposition if he went further. Embarrassed by their silence prior to that point, the Church at large continued to remain silent. The destruction of millions of Jews, travelling people, disabled people and homosexuals was the consequence. A silent church will ultimately take great responsibility for national events. This is our current situation with a few exceptions.

From what I hear from the Holy Spirit, we have weeks to consider this, not years. It seems the tsunamic of judgement is already apparent in our national life, national institutions and communities.