How Will We Be Judged?
To understand how we will be ‘judged’, it is important to understand that human actions fall into one of two categories. The first comprises of matters in which no ‘moral’ choice has to be made. These are purely accidental happenings whose outcome, whether good or bad, cannot be judged from a moral standpoint because they contained no ‘purposeful’ element. The second category is very different in nature because it covers a wide and complex range of actions—the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of which have to be scrupulously and purposefully considered before being carried out. This is known as the ‘ethical category’.
To understand the difference between the two let us take the example of a stone balanced precariously on the branch of a tree. If you walk under it, it falls and hits you, subsequently you find yourself badly injured. Do you strike the tree and bear a grudge against it? Of course not! But suppose a man picks up a stone, throws it at you with the intention of injuring you and actually does so, won’t you become enraged and feel an urge to retaliate in like manner? You would be perfectly justified in feeling that this wrong should be ‘punished’ because the act was ‘intentional.’ Here it is a question not just of some random happening, but of right and wrong action, good and bad intentions, in a word, of ‘ethics’.
The examples chosen to clarify this point are of a simple nature in that the outcome of the action is immediately apparent and, moreover, in the second case, it is possible to make an instant moral judgment. But there are other much more complex situations in life where wrongdoing goes undetected, its effects may be hidden or delayed for long periods, and the culprits may never be brought to book either by moral condemnation of society or in a court of law. Sometimes evildoing is, of course, perceived as such, but the miscreant is so clever and resourceful that he is able to escape punishment, or the human resources required to inflict punishment are lacking and so the evildoer goes scot-free. Crimes are often repeated for just such reasons. But the perpetrator of evil should not congratulate himself too soon on the success of his schemes or on his ability to escape, for it is exactly this type of action that he will be called to account for by his Creator on the Day of Judgment. Everyone, no matter from what walk of life he hails, will be required to stand before his Maker and lay his life absolutely bare before Him. On the basis of the actions which fall into the ‘ethical category’, where moral precepts or scruples, are of overriding importance, he will either be ushered into Paradise or cast down into the flaming pits of Hell. If all this was kept hidden from him in this world, it was because it was God’s plan to put man on ‘trial’. If he knew about all this, his trial would have been meaningless.
Every action of man has some consequences for him and every state that he finds himself in precipitates a ‘favourable’ or ‘unfavourable’ reaction. He then ‘makes’ or ‘breaks’ himself depending upon how he reacts to these situations and the manner in which he employs his faculties. If he reacts ‘favourably’, he passes the test and if he reacts ‘unfavourably’, he fails the test.
