Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
2 Corinthians 5:10-11 says:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.
These remarkable portions of Scripture speak of a certain point in the future when all human beings—both Christians and non-Christians—will face an upcoming judgment which will be based on our lives and works as individuals. There is nothing spoken in either passage related to an individual being judged as organically connected to a family, community, or nation. This is not to say that nations and corporate entities will not be judged (for example, Sodom and Gomorrah); Scripture does speak of sheep and goat nations (Matthew 25) and cities being judged (Matthew 11:20-24). But while these passages point to the fact that in the judgment we will likely be identified with a certain national and corporal heritage, it doesn’t take away from the fact that individuals who serve God will not be penalized for the sins of their nation (for example, 2 Peter 2:7 shows that Lot was not condemned with the other inhabitants of Sodom) or for the sins of their families (Ezekiel 3:19-20).
Ezekiel 3:4 makes it very clear: it is the soul who sins who shall die! And Paul says that “God commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).
Where am I going with all of this? I have attempted to establish that we will be judged by God as individuals. This flies in the face of the typical liberal mantra in which individuals are not responsible for their actions because of their cultural and economic environment (racism, class warfare, systemic poverty), psychological upbringing (the way our parents raised us), and/or because of genetic determinism (i.e., we are genetically predisposed to behave in a certain way from birth; thus it is not a choice how we act out our lives as individuals).
The result of this liberal ideology is for the state to overregulate every aspect of individual human life to bring about a utopia, resulting in the emphasizing of the secular state over religion, and the corporate state over individual rights. This, in turn, deemphasizes individual human rights, liberty, and private property rights, and favors redistribution of wealth, egalitarianism, and a large central government.
Ben Shapiro aptly states it this way:
“The same position that rejects the sanctity of unborn life tends to reject the sanctity of private property; both are based on the John Locke-ian premise that man is special in the universe, and that the product of his labor is an extension of his special place in the universe. Ignore man's Godly origins and his property becomes a dispensable commodity rather than a fulfillment of a divine mission.
“More than that, the religious society rests on two fundamental principles: personal responsibility and belief in responsibility to future generations. Secularism rejects both principles. Personal responsibility becomes societal responsibility in the secular view; our genetics and our environment, both of which are out of our control, shape us all. How, then, can we are held responsible for our actions?” (The Death of American Religion)
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How the Judgment Seat of Christ Connects to Conservative Values
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