“I am the searcher of hearts and minds and I will give each of you what your works deserve.”
Revelation 2:23 · NABRE
Today you do not stand before the throne. You sit on it. Eleven citizens of Endel will be brought in one at a time. You will see their whole lives, hear them speak in their own words, and rule. Then you will find out what King Jalyn actually said.
You have case(s) already on record. They are saved on this device.
He has always loved them, and he has yearned for this day. Though they have never met him, he has seen them. He has beheld their hearts and discerned their fruit. Nothing has been hidden. Know that his judgment is just. None will be slighted or misrepresented.
A screen above the throne replays the citizen's entire life from the first day of school until the day before. Every deed. Every word. Every motive behind both. The whole assembly watches it with you.
After the review, the Chief Scribe is asked one question: is this name found in the Book of Life? Everything else follows from the answer.
The city itself. Citizenship for the rest of their life. But the parable is blunt that not all citizens are rewarded equally, and the difference is enormous.
A windowless metal structure in the Great Desert of Fire, and one place beneath it. Utter darkness, hopelessness, and loneliness for the remainder of their life.
Three decisions on every case. First the destination. Then the station or the measure. Then the hardest one: name the Scripture your judgment rests on. A verdict you cannot ground in the writings is not a judgment, it is an opinion.
One warning. The docket is deliberately shuffled. Do not assume the person in front of you came from the same hall as the last one, and do not assume the pattern you just spotted will hold.
Every deed, word, and motive, played before the assembly.
This is the account they give of themselves before any ruling. What they say afterward is a different matter.
Where does this citizen go?
Select every text your ruling rests on. There may be one. There may be several.
All five are genuinely in play for this case. Some of them Jalyn used. Some are the ones people reach for and get wrong.
For each text you selected, say how it justifies the ruling you just gave.
Naming the right verse is not the same as reading it correctly. This is the part Jalyn actually argues with people about.
| Citizen | Your ruling | Verdict | Station | Texts found | Reasoning |
|---|
Every one of them was certain they knew how this would go. Two of them were right. The parable ends by handing the question back: if your own life were on that screen this afternoon, every deed and every word and the motive under each one, what would the assembly see?
Beauty had been theirs for the choosing.