1. Indeed, yes! No one can escape God’s Final Judgment. Who could flee forever from the truth? And who in his right mind would want to? We were created by a loving God, so what is there to fear? And why would anyone fear the Judgment of the Creator, the One Who created you in the first place, the One Who created you perfect and the One Who knows that you still are perfect as He created you? Those created perfect by God are ALWAYS PERFECT, as consistency is part of that perfection. In fact, the Final Judgment will not come until it is no longer associated with fear. One day each one will welcome the Final Judgment, and on that very day it will be given him and proclaimed around and around the world. This is the Judgment in which salvation lies. This is the Judgment that will set him free. This is the Judgment in which all things are freed with him. Time passes as eternity comes near, and silence lies across the world that everyone may hear this Judgment of the Son of God:

Holy are you, eternal, free and whole, at peace forever in the Heart of God. (1:11)

“God’s Son is guiltless and sin does not exist.” (M-10.2:9)

“My Son is pure and holy as Myself.” (W-pII.341:1:3)

2. Is this your judgment on yourself, teacher of God? Do you believe that this is wholly true? No, not yet. But this is still your goal; this is why you are here. It is your function to prepare yourself to hear this Judgment and to recognize that it is true. One instant of complete belief in this, and you will go beyond belief to Certainty. One instant out of time can bring the end of time. Judge not, for you but judge yourself, and thus delay this Final Judgment. What is your judgment of the world, teacher of God? Have you yet learned to stand aside and hear the Voice of Judgment (Holy Spirit) in yourself? Or do you still attempt to take His role from Him and continue to judge without Him? Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness. His Judgment comes to all who stand aside in quiet listening and wait for Him. “When you are afraid, be still and know that God is real, and you are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased.” (T-4.I.8:6)

3. You who are sometimes sad and sometimes angry; you who sometimes feel your just due is not given you; you who feel that no one listens to you (or if they do, they do not do as you say); and you who feel that your best efforts meet with lack of appreciation and even contempt; give up these foolish thoughts! They are too small and meaningless to occupy your holy mind an instant longer. God’s Judgment waits for you to set you free. What can the world hold out to you, regardless of your judgments on its gifts, that you would rather have? You will be judged by God in fairness and in honesty. There is no deceit in God. His promises are sure. Only remember that. His promises have guaranteed His Judgment, and His alone, will be accepted in the end. It is your function to make that end be soon. It is your function to hold it to your heart, and offer it to all the world to keep it safe.

Notes (Adapted from a writing by Robert Perry, Circle of Atonement, Sedona, Arizona):

Many of us in Western society have been taught that there is a “hell.” Many use the world “hell” as an expletive of judgment or resignation. Some tell others to go there, or “God will get you for that.” Though intellectually we may have rejected the idea of a literal place with flames and with guards with horns and pitchforks, the idea has not yet completely left the realm of possibility. There appears to be a lingering fear of what may lie after death that gnaws at the subconscious; denied, repressed, but somehow still appearing. Even many who believe in God still worry about how He will judge us in the end, how He will evaluate our lives, and what will become of us or our loved ones.

To us, then, the Course appeals: “Accept this holy truth!” The Final Judgment of the Son of God is not a condemnation, but a gift; not a punishment, but a blessing. It is a way out of the very idea of punishment. The Last Judgment does not enumerate our every fault and then lock us into their consequences for all eternity. No, it corrects our errors and frees us from them, and not only frees us from the errors themselves but from “all effects they ever seemed to have.” In fact, we learn that we made no errors and we are innocent beyond compare!!! Yet how can this be???

Do you remember many times when you have made mistakes that have seemed very costly in many ways? Have you not judged, condemned, prevaricated, and otherwise fallen short of the very idea of truth and love? Yet who is the “you” are we talking about here? The “you” that has collected all these “offenses against God and man” is the ego -- not the Christ. The CHRIST IS YOU, not the ego.

Think about it. How would it feel to know beyond any shadow of doubt that you are free from the ego, all its errors, and from all their effects? Would you burst into song – The Halleluyah Chorus perhaps? But that, the Course is telling us, is the truth, and it is this truth that “has never changed.” We are free from the ego, its errors and their effects; we always have been and we always will be. That is what we will all, collectively, come to accept in that moment of Last Judgment. And that is what we are now learning to accept for ourselves and to teach to all our brothers. We release each other from mistakes, through forgiveness, through understanding that what the ego thinks, does and says is not real. We look beyond the illusion of darkness to the light of truth, to the Christ in each of us.

Since the Last Judgment contains no condemnation, since we are, all of us, free from errors and every effect they ever seemed to have, how foolish to fear it! Street evangelists with their placards proclaim, “Prepare to meet thy God!” They proclaim a message of fear: “Look out! Soon you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and if you are not ready, you will be doomed forever.” Jesus, in the Course, is telling us that there is no reason to fear. Fearing God’s Judgment is fearing the heart of what we all choose: complete release from suffering. The Judgment of God does not “doom;” it redeems. To fear God’s saving grace is but to fear complete release from suffering, to fear the return to peace, serenity, happiness, and union with your true Identity. What is to fear in that?

We suffer due to guilt; forgiveness releases us. We are in distress due to fear; forgiveness returns us to peace, security, and happiness. We are estranged from our Identity only by our belief in the ego; forgiveness brings us back into union with our Christ Self.

The fear of God may lie deep within us. Yet the truth that God comes only with blessing lies at our very core! He comes only to bring us the awareness that we already have everything we have ever truly wanted and more. “Fear Not!” the angels announced at Jesus’ birth. “For behold! I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Luke 2:10). That is what we are being asked to accept: that behind all the appearances of terror, death and vengeance we have overlaid on it, God’s creation consists of pure Joy, pure Love, pure Peace, and pure Grace. God waits for us, not to punish us, but to enfold us forever in His everlasting Arms. AMEN (Thank you to Robert Perry)

***

What about our brothers who are not yet ready to understand these truths? What about the ones who continue to act according to the ego dictates and not to the Christ within? To them we say, “When you are ready, the truth awaits you.” And we continue to demonstrate the truth to all who will see it.

All will go home to God – ALL. This can be said with equanimity because in truth, NONE OF US EVER LEFT GOD . This is only a dream, my brothers, and the answer is: AWAKEN IN CHRIST.

Prayer:

Father, when we appeared to separate from you and from our home with you in Heaven, we chose to believe what could never happen in truth. Thank You for lifting us out of the darkness that we made to hide from the truth -- into the Light of Heaven that is eternal, as is your Son. Amen.

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

15. IS EACH ONE TO BE JUDGED IN THE END?

RECAP

1. Indeed, yes! One day each one will welcome it, and on that very day it will be given him.

2. On that day, he will hear his sinlessness proclaimed around and around the world, setting it free as God’s Final Judgment on him is received. This is the Judgment in which salvation lies.

3. Time pauses as eternity comes near, and silence lies across the world that everyone may hear this Judgment of the Son of God:

Holy are you, eternal, free and whole, at peace forever in the Heart of God.

It is your function to prepare yourself to hear this Judgment and to recognize that it is true.

4. How do you prepare for God’s Final Judgment?

Give up foolish thoughts that you have not received your just due, or that

your best efforts have met with lack of appreciation and contempt.

Judge not, for you but judge yourself, and thus delay this Final Judgment.*

Learn to stand aside and hear the Voice of Judgment in yourself.

Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness.

Remember, His Judgment comes to all who stand aside in quiet listening

and wait for Him.

Remember that His promises have guaranteed His Judgment will be accepted.

Hold this idea to your heart, and offer it to all the world to keep it safe.

*When you give up the notion that you can judge, then you put yourself in a position where judgment through you, rather than by you, can occur. This judgment is neither good nor bad. It is simply the only judgment there is: “God’s Son is guiltless, and sin does not exist.” Understanding this, you release each other from mistakes through forgiveness – understanding that what the ego thinks, says, and does is not real. You will then see the face of Christ in your brother, a reflection of YOU!

Notes:

1. The Final Judgment of the Son of God is not a condemnation, but a gift,

not a punishment, but a blessing,

not a “no exit” but a way out of the very idea of punishment.

2. The Final Judgment does not enumerate our every fault and lock us into their consequences.

It corrects our errors and frees us from them and from “all effects they ever seemed to have.”

We learn we made no errors and are innocent beyond compare!!!

3. How can this be?! No matter what “offenses” you may have collected in your memory, remember that it is the ego that offends. The truth of you, the Christ, has made no errors – ever! YOU ARE THE CHRIST; you are not the ego.

4. The fear of God may lie deep within us. Yet the truth that God comes only with blessing lies at our very core. God waits for us, not to punish, but to enfold us eternally in His everlasting Arms.