(056) – THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE

 

The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; A god of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He” (Deut. 32:4). Jehovah also proclaims himself the God of this world “The earth is Jehovah’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it” (Ps. 24:1). Jehovah is also the judge of this world “Rise up, O Judge of the earth; render recompense to the proud” (Ps. 94:2).

“He is Jehovah our God; His judgments are in all the earth” (Ps. 105:7). “For Jehovah is our judge, Jehovah is our lawgiver, Jehovah is our king; He will save us” Is. 33:22). “But, O Jehovah of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the feelings and the heart” (Jer. 11:20). “But God is the Judge; He puts down one, and exalts another” (Ps. 75:7).

It is, thus, proven in the Bible that Jehovah is the judge of this world, and obvious that, being God, he has to be a righteous judge to men. We read in Rom. 3:23 that all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. This destitution was so great that Jehovah declares that the final destiny of men is the same as that of the animals: I said to myself concerning the sons of men, ‘God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts. For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust. Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth? And I have seen that nothing is better that that man should be happy in his activities, for that is a lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?” (Eccl. 3:18-22); “There is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10).

  1. Jehovah, the potter, takes the clay from one same lump and makes a vessel for honor and a vessel for dishonor (Rom. 9:21). This constituted an injustice, because one should not give different prizes to equal people: Jehovah is an unjust judge.
  2. Paul says that each of us shall give an account of himself to God (Rom. 14:12). If there is personal responsibility, can a righteous God kill the son for the sin of his father? David committed a shameful adultery and should be killed by stoning (Lev. 20:10). David was not stoned, though; the one to die was the child, wounded by Jehovah: Jehovah is and unjust judge.
  3. Can a God ascribe responsibility to one generation for the sin of another generation? The Jewish people in the Babylonian captivity said, “Our fathers sinned, and are no more; it is we who have borne their iniquities. Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hand. We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness. Our skin has become as hot as an oven, because of the burning heat of famine. They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah” (Lam. 5:7-11). This is the unjust method of the judge of all the earth. “Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter because of the iniquity of their fathers” (Is. 14:21).
  4. If God is a Father and, beyond everything, he is love, how does he call on hereditary curses for the sin of a man? The situation was like this: Naaman, the Syrian, was a leper. Acting on the word of the prophet Elisha, he bathed himself seven times in the river Jordan, and was healed. In order to express his gratitude, Naaman offered gifts, which Elisha did not take. Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, away from Elisha’s sight, went after Naaman and asked for the gifts. As Gehazi returned, happy with his gifts, Elisha came and told him, from Jehovah: “’The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave to you and to your descendants forever.’ So he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.” His descendants were unjustly touched by Jehovah (2 Kings 5:1-27).
  5. Jehovah rejected the lame, the emasculated and the bastards forever, even if they happened to be worthy men. How can a judge, who considers himself just, commit such injustice? Jehovah, though, declared this in Deut. 23:1,2.
  6. Jehovah, who entitled himself God, and a just God, righteous and true, should not be pleased with a wicked man. Nebuchadnezzar was evil and wicked, and considered himself a god: such was his boasting. He had a statute built, all in gold, of about thirty meters high. Whoever did not kneel before the statue of the king was thrown into a huge furnace of fire (Dan. 3:1-15). Nevertheless, Jehovah was pleased with Nebuchadnezzar and handed him all the kingdoms of the earth (Jer. 27:5,6). He even called Nebuchadnezzar his servant. Nebuchadnezzar is a figure of Satan (Is. 14:4-15). Following the reasoning and the logic of the figure, Jehovah was pleased with Satan, his servant, and gave to him all the kingdoms of the world. Satan himself declares this: “And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish” (Luke 4: 5,6). Jehovah asseverates that everything that happens under the heavens obeys his will (Is. 14:27; 43:13). He was, therefore, unjust to hand everything over to Satan.
  7. Is there any justice in a god who desires evil for his people? “So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says Jehovah, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you”’” (Jer. 18:11). “‘For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good,’ declares Jehovah” (Jer. 21:10). A just God does justice and not evil, and he does not spend time planning calamities.
  8. Jehovah declared to Abraham that, for the love of ten righteous men, he would spare an entire city (Gen. 18:23-33). Twelve hundred years after that he declares through Ezekiel that he is going to kill the righteous together with the wicked (Ezek. 21:1-4). It is proven, therefore, that Jehovah is an unjust judge, seeing that he says one thing and does another; he even lied to Abraham. These are two grave flaws in the character of Jehovah.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ does not judge anyone, seeing that he set Jesus as the only righteous judge (John 5:22; Acts 17:31). The Father does not destroy anyone; therefore it was not him who destroyed humanity in the flood: he wants all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3,4). God, the Father, is love, and love does not take offences (1 John 4:7,8; 1 Cor. 13:4-7). Let us, therefore, glorify the Father!

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

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