{"id":35509,"date":"2012-10-25T21:34:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T02:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=35509"},"modified":"2021-06-02T21:38:29","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T02:38:29","slug":"some-questions-about-judgments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/some-questions-about-judgments\/","title":{"rendered":"Some questions about judgments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Please forgive me for taking up your time, but I became so excited when I came across this site!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I understand that ignorance is not an excuse, and that transgression of God’s laws is sin. However, this is my question:\u00a0 What if my brother who was just taught the gospel of Christ a few weeks ago, understood that he was in sin, being outside of Christ, begins to fervently study the Scriptures daily.\u00a0 He realizes within a week of studying that viewing pornography is a sin, so he immediately and sorrowfully repents of that sin and prays for forgiveness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The other day, he did not tell the truth when he filed income taxes.\u00a0 He dies in a car accident without realizing he had sinned; therefore not knowing to repent, he did not repent.\u00a0 I think his soul is in the hands of a merciful and compassionate God.\u00a0 Someone else has said lying is sin, sin is the transgression of God’s law, and ignorance is no excuse, so my brother is going to hell just like anyone else who sins! I know neither of us is the judge, but this is bothering me.\u00a0 I know God was compassionate in the Old Testament. I think our God was then, and is now, a compassionate God.\u00a0 What do the Scriptures say?<\/li>\n
  2. During worship services in some churches of Christ, the atmosphere is full of excitement and fervor.\u00a0 In others, the worship services are solemn and reserved. Both are teaching the doctrine of Christ, and worship in spirit and truth.\u00a0 My question: If a visitor (member or non-member) begins to clap during the singing part of worship or during preaching, how should the minister, or members handle the situation? (There are no elders at this congregation.)<\/li>\n
  3. What should one do, how should one react when the ministers, leaders, and members fail to meet the needs of fellow Christians? The minister has a holier than thou attitude, does not like to be questioned, and bullies from the pulpit.\u00a0 It is becoming more and more difficult to worship in spirit and truth.\u00a0 I know worship is not all about me, or about the minister.\u00a0 I know it is about my Heavenly Father.\u00a0 But how do I continue to sacrifice my willingness to serve and worship the Lord in such an environment as this, when there is not another congregation of the Lord’s church to choose from in my city?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\t

    Answer:<\/h2>\n

    “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God<\/em>” (I Corinthians 4:5).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    It is not up to you, I or anyone else to judge individuals in regards to their final destiny. We teach what God said. God said lying is wrong (Revelation 21:8). Whether your brother purposely or accidentally lied or whether he could understand that lying is wrong is between him and God. For anyone to judge another is to make judgments without all the information. The only place we can make judgments is in the application of God’s word in the here and now. “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?<\/em>” (I Corinthians 6:2-4). So, in other words, if I know someone lied, I am responsible to tell him that lying is wrong, warn him about the consequences, and encourage him to change. But whether ultimately that lie keeps him out of heaven or not is between him and God.<\/p>\n

    “But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth<\/em>” (I Timothy 3:15).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

    “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:1-5).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Read how John the Baptist preached in Matthew 3:7-12 and think about what it would be like to have John in your pulpit. The question is about the perceived attitude of the man preaching, something that people cannot accurately judge because it requires knowing the person’s thoughts. What makes a man a good or bad preacher is whether he is accurately teaching the Word of God.<\/p>\n\t

    Response:<\/h2>\n

    Thank you so very much for the responses to my questions. Thank you so much for the opportunity to ask.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Question: Please forgive me for taking up your time, but I became so excited when I came across this site! I understand that ignorance is not an excuse, and that transgression of God’s laws is sin. However, this is my question:\u00a0 What if my brother who was just taught the gospel of Christ a few…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[759,713,536],"class_list":["post-35509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-entertainment","tag-judging-others","tag-preaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28382,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-i-cant-repent\/","url_meta":{"origin":35509,"position":0},"title":"What if I can’t repent?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Hebrews 12 it talks about how Esau could not repent. My life is rampant with sin, and I can't get rid of it. I think I'm like Esau. He begged for repentance with bitter tears. My mind is more corrupt than you can imagine. He could not\u00a0repent, and\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":53644,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-christian-who-teaches-error-still-a-brother-in-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":35509,"position":1},"title":"Is a Christian who teaches error still a brother in Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A big fire started after our morning services this morning! One of our members here adamantly disagreed with me when I mentioned that when a brother sins by teaching doctrinal error, he must repent, and if he refuses to repent he is \"a brother in error.\" Until he does\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":52237,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-lie-if-he-doesnt-know-i-lied-to-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":35509,"position":2},"title":"Is it a lie if he doesn’t know I lied to him?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a problem this has been bothering me. I am a Christian. I heard a brother in Christ mention something and I told him that he looked good when I thought that he did not. Should I tell him the truth, even if he did not know that\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":70930,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-the-galatians-repent-of-their-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":35509,"position":3},"title":"Could the Galatians repent of their sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Mr. Hamilton, I have been reading your website for quite some time. I struggle with the unpardonable sin and have read your articles dozens of times. My question is: Could the Galatians repent of their sin of mixing the old and new covenant and return to Christ, or\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":66252,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/repent-of-your-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":35509,"position":4},"title":"Repent of Your Sins","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Nana Yaw Aidoo via The Gospel Preceptor, Vol. 7, No. 2, February 2024 Over and over again, the New Testament emphasizes the necessity of repentance in the salvation of humans. The first preacher in the New Testament is John the Baptizer. We are told that he was sent to\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":[]},{"id":60416,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/three-quotes-on-forgiving-a-brother\/","url_meta":{"origin":35509,"position":5},"title":"Three Quotes on Forgiving a Brother","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"From Questions Answered, Lipscomb and Sewell, Kurfees, pg. 260 Question: If a brother in the church offends us, is it right for us to forgive him whether he comes and asks us to or not, or must we hold it against him until he comes and asks our pardon? Would\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\/35509","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=35509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}