Judgement House - Some Like it Hot !

I was just thinking, louder than usual actually. Why is it that people perceive things differently? A great example is an event produced by a local church, Christ Temple. It is scheduled each year to run through the Halloween “season” usually concluding on Halloween night.

As an ordained minister, this is the first year that I attended their production, Judgement House. My wife and daughter have visited it on multiple occasions. They are both saved and are believers but they enjoy seeing the event and taking friends with them who have not been saved. Again, since I have been saved and know my eternal destination I have never witnessed the event before this year.

I thought it was fantastic. It was very professional, from the acting (including my daughter Holly), to the set props and special effects. It was just an amazing enactment. There were eight (I believe) different sets to walk through in groups of 50+. The play evolved around a real-life incident intermingled with some literary license. A teenage girl was out with her friends one night and they decided to go to Judgment House. The girl, Kristen got saved (true), and was travelling in a car with three others who did not get saved (over a year later and fictitious information provided for effect). She died at the scene (true) and two boys died in a hospital emergency room (fiction.

The play goes into specific detail in the hospital setting, replete with a monitor on the wall that showed what ER number each patient (same used in play) was in. There was much crying when the mother of Kristen was informed of her child’s demise, which was so realistic you felt like crying yourself, some did.

After the hospital scene the viewers are taken to the Judgment Throne. In this room, one by one, the individuals were brought in to have judgment placed on their souls. The two boys were defiant, hateful, and disrespectful, even as two imps from hell escorted them away to the Prince of Darkness. Kristen’s name was found in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and she was taken from the throne to her Heavenly reward.

In the next scene we were placed in the bowels of hell. It was very disheartening to see the young men being taken from Satan’s presence and presumably cast into the lake of fire. Satan then addressed the crowd and told them he was waiting for each one of them to come to him. Very chilling I am sure to an unbeliever. I must confess, I did not want to make eye contact with him.

The next scene was in Heaven where we saw Jesus receiving Kristen and bringing her to her uncle (or grandfather), whom had died earlier as a Christian. Very inviting and uplifting, especially compared to the unrelenting torture we had just visited.

My point of telling this entire story is that not everyone perceives it in the same vein. I thought it was awesome, entertaining, challenging, and frightening all at once. Many people, mostly teens and pre-teens, were saved after watching the performance. Others say they had to wait too long to see it, were bored and couldn’t wait to get out. Some said they had no response to the performance at all and wondered why, after being a Christian for years and now having so many questions about Christianity.

One reason could be that they have completely lost their first love (love for Jesus) and dabbled into other practices to the point where God gave up on them. He will do that you know, after so many disappointments and turning your back on Him. Why would Satan waste his time trying to make you miserable if he already had you on his roster? Look what the Apostle Paul tells us.
 “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient…” (Rom 1:28 KJV)

Over 6,000 people stayed and waited until their group was called, and witnessed a performance that most likely will stay with them until they enter the real Judgement House.

What are your thoughts?