The Trumpet Call of Judgment

Heavenly Justice and me…?




Today my reflections were linked to Mt 25:31 to 45, the ceremony of the last judgment call of the Lord at His Second Coming:

1. From this biblical verse I came to realize that Heaven’s standard of judgment (SOJ) for the actions of all humankind during the Final Judgment period is linked to what we should have done not what we actually did do. Heaven seems to view us all as one people…maybe historical children of Adam & Eve. This view is closer to the meaning of malfeasance and is linked with our human responsibility “to have done well” as compared to our human rights and qualification though of so highly in our modern world. Notice what the King of Heaven says in Mt. 25:45 to those condemned to eternal suffering: “In as much as you did it not to one of the lease of these, you did it not to me”. The King equates Himself to humanity and judges all by the inner standard of their quality of heart towards each other not by the outer standard of what they actually did or didn’t do to justify being counted as good!

2. The current Traditional Judicial system or retributive justice systems use various standards of evidence (SOE) to validate the guilt or innocence of those being judged. Usually for criminal cases, they will use the highest standard of evidence called “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” (BRD); while for civil case, they might use the lowest standard of evidence called “Preponderance of evidence” (POE). By lower and higher I am referring to focus of evidence. We could refer to one as horizontal and the other as vertical. BRD is horizontal seeking tangible-factual evidence in the here and now; while POE is vertical seeking tangible-factual evidence from a holistic viewpoint or even an historical viewpoint.

3. The newer Transitional Justice systems or restorative justice systems like Truth Commissions have generally used the lower SOE called “Preponderance of evidence”.  I wish to show the mean difference between these two systems of judgment and their standards of evidence is their relative perspective of judgment. Traditional justice systems are relative; while transitional justice systems are more absolute. The traditional systems view justice from a narrow, selfish or local perspective; while transitional justice systems view justice from a wider, absolute or global perspective.

4. The retributive justice system judges each incident or case narrowly from an external perspective relative to the Rule of Law; therefore it has to relies heavily on a higher tangible rule of evidence such as “beyond reasonable doubt”.  The “due process” of retributive justice systems seeks to protect the immediate rights of all people good or bad no matter what they have done. This is why the symbol of justice is a blind lady holding the scale. The fact that she is blind is linked to her impartiality towards good or evil. She only relies on the tangible evidence presented on the scale of justice.

5.The restorative justice system in contrast, judges each incident or case broadly from an internal or historic perspective relative to the Rule of Law(ROL); therefore it needs not to rely on higher tangible evidence (in most cases this is not available) but rather higher moral and ethical evidence as exemplified by the expression “preponderance of the evidence”. Here preponderance does not mean “externally much” but rather the evidence is clearly seen by all societal (inclusive of spiritual, economic, and political) indicators. While this standard is not sufficient for judicial judgment it is sufficient to separate the sheep (Good-sacrificial-obedient to the Master) from the goats (Bad-selfish-stubborn to the Master’s will) in human society.

6. Note, while both processes are concern with preserving balance and harmony in the system under review using different perspectives, they also have different long term goals. The retributive  justice system simply seeks to separate the criminal element from the rest of society; it rarely focuses on restoring or rejuvenating the criminal; while restorative justice systems have the key mandate to restore social order in a society after a major breakdown such as a civil war. This was the mandate of both the South African TRC and Liberia’s TRC. To be continued…  


In retrospect, the coming Lord will judge all humankind from a transitional justice perspective as in restorative justice, compared to retributive justice because His long-term goal is to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth as a prelude to its existence in heaven[1](Mt 16:19). Two thousand years ago Lord Jesus died prior to building God’s Kingdom on Earth so He only opened up Paradise in Heaven leaving this world under Satan’s dominion until His second coming. Of course He left the keys to the kingdom on earth. Regrettably, so few understand those KEYS to be absolute FAITH, absolute LOVE and absolute OBEDIENCE to the will of GOD. Therefore in the above story of Mt 25 Lord Jesus is telling us that when He returns again His focus will not be on bearing our sins but rather on destroying Satan’s Dominion so that Heaven can plant the seed for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. The Judgment scenario of separating Sheep (humble, selfless, and good) from Goat (stubborn, selfish, and evil) is to ensure a protective realm for the “mustard Seed”[2] Kingdom to grow, over the 1,000 year[3] earthly rule of the Lord’s family. I dare say that our Liberian Civil War has been for this very purpose.  By the way, this 1000 year period begins January 13, 2013.


 Love you all always.  


[1] MT 16:19 “…whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”

[2] Mt 13:31 “…The Kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field”

[3] Rev. 20:4 “…and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years”