Here is something that I am confused about. In I Thessalonians 4:17 Paul told the Thessalonians “then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and shall we ever be with the Lord.” Now in II Corinthians 5:10, Paul states: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad.” So my question is if “we shall ever be with the Lord” when will we be judged? Are those that have been found faithful already judged? I know that from Luke 16:19-31 there must have been prejudgment so that Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom and the rich man was not.<\/p>\n\t
The confusion arises because the use of the word “judgment” in the Bible is broader than how we use it today in English. We tend to narrow the definition to only the determination between truth and falsehood. But in the Bible, it can also be applied to the sentencing of the guilty; that is, a judgment as to the punishment of the guilty.<\/p>\n
Where we will be in eternity is set by what we do in this life. But at the end of the world, every individual is going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ for the final sentencing, which is based on the deeds we have done while here on earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Here is something that I am confused about. In I Thessalonians 4:17 Paul told the Thessalonians “then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and shall we ever be with the Lord.” Now in II Corinthians 5:10, Paul…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[109,410,339],"class_list":["post-16621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-death","tag-judgment","tag-second-coming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35758,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-bema-judgment\/","url_meta":{"origin":16621,"position":0},"title":"What is the bema judgment?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I enjoy your website. I have been reading what you have on there about the rapture. It helped me to answer one of my student's questions. Now he has asked me about the Bema judgment. I never heard of it. I looked it up on the net, but I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-punishment-for-the-unrepentant-sinner-on-judgment-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":16621,"position":1},"title":"What is the punishment for the unrepentant sinner on Judgment Day?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted to write and ask you what you teach the punishment for sin is for unrepentant sinners at the final Judgement. Answer: \"... and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40961,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-will-the-judgment-be-like\/","url_meta":{"origin":16621,"position":2},"title":"What will the judgment be like?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What will the judgment be like for everyone? Will it be just between God and the person or a public event where everyone will be able to see or hear the account of things the person did, every secret and sin in his or her life? What's the difference\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88674,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-would-babies-who-die-be-judged\/","url_meta":{"origin":16621,"position":3},"title":"Why would babies who die be judged?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about infants, aborted and miscarried souls, and the judgment. Are they awaiting judgment? Would there be any reason to judge them? I have had several miscarried babies, and it's just something I've been wondering about, even though I know where they're going\/have gone. Thank you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23763,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-our-sins-completely-wiped-away-or-will-they-be-remembered-at-judgment-in-some-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":16621,"position":4},"title":"Are our sins completely wiped away or will they be remembered at Judgment in some way?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In II Corinthians 5:10, it reads:\u00a0\"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.\" Then in Hebrews 8:12, it reads:\u00a0\"For I will be merciful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3548,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-rapture\/","url_meta":{"origin":16621,"position":5},"title":"What Is the Rapture?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by V. Glenn McCoy \u00a0 A young Christian mother recently came into my office with her two children and said, \"Will you please explain to my children what the 'Rapture' is?\" Her children had been exposed to the \"Rapture\" through some of their friends and they were left confused. Most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}