The 'Judgment' Question
Can The Saints Judge?
Step Out, Step In, Step Up!
Challenging the saints of god to step out of their comfort zones, step in to the spiritual war against the principalities and powers of the air, and step up the ladder onto the higher prophetic realms of power, to...
Fight the Good Fight of Faith with Divinely Powerful Weapons!
Can Christians Judge?
We have all heard it a million times.
Mat 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged!
Some folks put it this way, Judge not, lest ye be judged
Christians throw these 6 or 7 words around like they are a preventive for any kind of sound judgment, criticism, or when we simply address what is obviously right or wrong in the church, or in the world and the governments and powers in and of it, and in the spirits of the air who effect it by influencing the people in it.
It is the most abused scripture in the whole of the bible, and without a doubt the devil's favorite!
With it the devil has effectively shut the mouth of any saint who tries to use their discernment, by throwing this scripture at them and putting their minds in a place of doubting their own thoughts, where their own god-given common sense is seized and held captive; thereby effecting a kind of 'switch-counter switch' reaction in their thinking which seizes their mind and achieves the ultimate goal of the devil to cause them to stand still and do or say absolutely nothing! Perfect. The devil loves that! Why? Because you are not judging him, his kingdoms, or his world!
With those six or seven words he has turned off their ability to discern truth from error and knocked them out of any effective spiritual warfare, let alone to work with the spirit of god who has sent the Holy Spirit to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Joh 16:8.
In effect the devil has used the seven words Judge not, that ye be not judged so out of context of the whole counsel of god's complete word on the matter, to accomplish his purpose to quench the very spirit that was sent and placed in the saints to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment!
With these six or seven words, Judge not, that ye be not judged, when used as they are so often misused, the devil and his agents, wittingly or unwittingly, have and has conducted a preemptive strike at our faith and our standing in god as his emerging and ever-increasing government on earth, and effected a kind of spiritual coup d'état - which is a “military overthrow of an existing government”. In this case, the government of your spiritual minds!
Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
1Pe 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober,
We are so duped by demons with this wrong interpretation of Judge not, that ye be not judged that it has become a plague of the mind that has emasculated us and we cannot even see the difference between judging and vengeance. Our minds are so fogged on this that we can no longer rightly divide something as simple as this concept of judging correctly or even judging at all.
We think that when we judge the world and those in it, including ourselves, that we are executing vengeance. Far from it, for Deu 32:35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; Rom 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Judging is not vengeance! Vengeance is not judging. One is the dividing between truth and error, right and wrong, righteousness and unrighteousness, good and evil. The other is wielding the sword to take a life or some other form of harm. The first we are encouraged by the whole counsel of the scripture to do always, the other is reserved to god alone. Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Judgment is the weighing in the balance between good and evil, taking a right measure of it, and then pronouncing a verdict. This we are to do. The carrying out of the execution we are not. Vengeance is the execution of the judgment written or spoken. That belongs to god alone.
You see, the devil and his ministers of light wrongly interpret the scripture, for their hearts are not pure before god. They do this to conquer the people and to keep them down, and under submission to themselves, preventing the people from realizing their full potential and authority to judge as a king under their king of kings – King Yahshua-Jesus.
Let's look at the source for the words from Mat 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
As always, proper Biblical exegesis requires us to do a search of the first mention of the words and phrase, and then to look at the Hebrew word and the roots of those words to understand what the spirit is saying in the logos that we may receive the rhema, or the inspired word of god, on this matter.
The following verse is the very first mention of the phrase 'judge not'.
2Ch 19:6 And said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge* not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment.
H8199
shâphaṭ
shaw-fat'
A primitive root; to judge, that is, pronounce sentence (for or against); by implication to vindicate or punish;
To better understand the difference between the two kinds of judging let us look at a court scene.
Let's say it is a murder trial, and a jury of 12 men and women hear the evidence of the prosecutor concerning the accused and make a judgment as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. This is called a verdict. In law, the definition is the finding or answer of a jury given to the court concerning a matter submitted to their judgment.
We can see from this that if we were not to judge in this manner then all the jury verdicts all over the world for all time have been illegal in the eyes of god. Ask yourself this. How many Christians have sat jury duty and had no qualms about presenting a verdict to the Magistrate Judge? Were they judging when they were to judge not? Did they sin? Can you now see how ridiculous the wrong interpretation of the scripture is when people use it in the way they do?
Now let's look at what happens once the verdict is given. The Magistrate at the bench makes a judgment on the sentence to be carried out according to the law if found guilty. If the crime is severe enough, this judgment has the power to take a life. This is where the Hebrew word H8199 'shâphaṭ' comes in. It means to pronounce sentence or punish. This is the force that belongs only to god, for Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Remember the first mention of the word and the concept contained in it?
2Ch 19:6 And said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge* not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment.
This is the true and perfect interpretation of the words Yahshua Jesus spoke when he said, Mat 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged!
He meant do not execute your own vengeance. Do not render evil for evil. Do not break the commandments.
Now lets look at what the word of god says continually and contextually throughout the scripture about the kind of judgment that does not take it's own vengeance, yet judges between good and evil, as in a court of law.
Gen 18:19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Pro 1:2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
Pro 1:3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
Pro 1:4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
Pro 8:12 I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
Pro 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way and the froward mouth, do I hate.
Pro 8:20 I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:
This is just a small sample of the concept of judging and judgment. In fact, the term judgment is mentioned 294 times, and the term judge 191 times. That's almost 500 times the spirit of god has used the terms in scripture, so it must be an important concept to him.
Now, I know there are going to be those people who have also been duped by demons with the old worn out nonsense by using the phrase 'that is Old Testament', and that you can't find judging in the New Testament? Oh really? Let me say that those people who say this obviously haven't read the New Testament thoroughly, or if they have the devil has blinded them to the truth contained in it.
Let's take a look at where judgment, as in a verdict that comes from rightly dividing between good and evil and pronouncing a judgment against that evil, is contained in the New Testament. I am going to give three examples, and I am going to use three of the most prominent New Testament figures. Yahshua-Jesus, Peter, and Paul.
First Yahshua.
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Mat 23:13
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Mat 23:15
He goes on to judge them 11 times! Then he judges them by saying, Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
Sounds very much like judgment to me!
Secondly Peter.
Act 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
Act 5:2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
Act 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
Act 5:4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
Act 5:5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
Act 5:6 And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.
Act 5:7 And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
Act 5:8 And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.
Act 5:9 Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.
Act 5:10 Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
Rationalize it all you want, but it sounds like judgment to me!
Lastly Paul.
1Co 5:3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
1Co 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Wow! That sure sounds like judgment to me! What about you?
Three New Testament examples of how men of god can, and are able, to judge!
What authority these men had! They judged correctly because they knew their god, displayed strength, and took action. Dan 11:32 but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
1Co 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Folks, stop letting these scriptural idiots who teach and preach that you cannot judge, who rob you of your birth right as kings and queens of the most high god to judge the world, to dissuade you from that which you instinctively know is true! How can you possibly wrestle against principalities and powers if you do not execute judgment against them?
Psa 149:6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand;
Psa 149:7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;
Psa 149:8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;
Psa 149:9 To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD.
This should be the end of the matter. If it is not, and others want to argue it all over again, then they are unteachable, and you should have nothing to do with them, for 1Ti 6:4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 1Ti 6:5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.
So, give that devil HELL for judgment is yours, and give Yah the glory, for the vengeance is His!
Shalom!
All works of darkness and deception will be revealed and exposed by the light of truth