This past weekend our youth group wanted to go to a Judgment House... so we went. For those of you who may not be in the "know" on this, a judgment house is basically a haunted house for Christians but with the gospel message.
How are these the alternative for haunted houses? Glad you asked... . First, they're only done in the month of October and are held around the same time as Halloween. Secondly, their intent is to scare the Hell out of us... literally.
Basically Judgment Houses all follow the same M.O. They are a dramatic presentation of what happens in the after life. The groups attending the Judgment House are introduced to a family who you will follow through several scenes of their lives. The members of the family never seem to really have time for church and are all basically "good" people. The one our youth group visited had the mother character volunteering at a local soup kitchen yet she was not a church attending Christian. Then as the scenes go, your group is escorted by a narrator through their lives.
In one scene we are taken to a youth group drama team practice by one of the daughter's friends. At the practice after seeing the gospel performed in a skit she asks her friend how she can accept Christ into her life after her friend witnesses to her in their conversation. The daughter's mother enters the scene to pick her up and the girl excitedly tells her mom that she got saved. The mother is quite turned off and quickly changes the subject about going to get something to eat at a local side walk cafe type of restaurant.
The next scene we are escorted to shows a horrific accident where the daughter and mother are killed by a car jumping the curb onto the restaurant patio where they were eating. We enter the scene just after the accident and bodies are laid all over the place with EMTs attending the scene. The narrator then explains, "This is what happens next...."
At this point, you are escorted typically to a funeral scene where the remaining members of the family contemplate where the others who have died might be. They are all explained to be in Heaven by the father because they were such good people. Then here's where it gets intense...
The next scene is - for some reason - the judgment of the family members who have died. I'm no eschatologist, but what we refer to as the Great White Throne Judgment doesn't happen each time someone dies. This is the judgment that is being depicted but according to scripture is the final judgment after Satan and the demons have been thrown into the Lake of Fire. This judgment also takes place after the Millennial Kingdom is completed (Revelation 20:7-15) not each time someone dies. In the gospel account of the Rich Man, he dies, is buried then lifts up his eyes in torment. No indication that he goes to a preliminary judgment place is indicated. When Lazarus dies he is immediately escorted into Paradise.
Judgment Houses always have the dead family members standing before "the Judge." The daughter - in our case - was brought before the Judge and pronounced righteous and gets to exit the scene into Heaven.
Then the mother is brought forward who is so confident that she is about to get into Heaven as well. She is stopped short by the Judge who looks into the "Lamb's Book of Life" (another clue that we are at the Great White Throne Judgment) and cannot find her name in the book. The Judge pronounces her doom and then very dramatically demons appear from a side door, grab the mother - kicking and screaming violently - and drag her out of the scene and into Hell. Then for dramatic affect the judge begins to call out the actual names of members in your group and brings them forward. He then says something similar to, "Today is not your day, but when you stand here before me will you be ready?" We then exit to Hell... .
At the eventual Great White Throne judgment God will not use demons as his lackeys to take doomed humans to Hell. They will be thrown into the eternal judgment as counterparts in the rebellion. They will not be in a position to gloat over lost humanity.
The next scene is the reason I decided to blog about Judgment Houses and their theology. We then enter into the Hell scene and the room is dark, lighted only with black lights, splattered paint that shows up under the black lights to resemble fire or blood; it's 80 degrees plus in the room to represent the fire in Hell and screams are being pumped through the PA system. The intent, as you can tell, is to try to represent Hell the most horrific way possible to get people to realize the nature of this place.
Then enters Satan... he is dressed in black with a horrific "Satan" mask. Over on the side you can see the mother being whipped and beaten and kicked by demons. Satan begins to get into the face of the crowd screaming and laughing. He grabs the mom and brings her over to the crowd where she begins to plead with us not to ever come to this place and to tell her other family members who were left behind (similar to the Rich Man in the New Testament pleading for a warning for his brothers) about this place.
The problem I had with this scene is that in Hell Satan is not the lord or ruler as some so commonly think. He and his minions don't have thrones in Hell where they rule on beds of lava.
Hell is their judgment just as much as it is any human who dies and goes to that awful place. The old adage, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven," can't be further from the truth. Satan is called the god of this world referring to Earthly realms. He was cast down from Heaven onto Earth as Isaiah describes. Hell wasn't designed as an eternal bachelor pad where Satan gets to further torment those created in God's image. Also, at the judgment, demons are not going to be the eternal escorts of those who are given Hell - as their choice in this life - by rejecting Christ. Satan and the rebellious angles aren't the reciprocal expression (mirror image) of God and His kingdom. They are created beings that will also come under the same judgment of God as such - created beings.
Now to wrap this up... are judgment houses bad? I don't necessarily think so. The intent is to answer the questions of what happens after this life and how there is an eternal reward of punishment awaiting. At the end of the drama the groups are escorted into a counseling room where the scenes are explained. Our speaker admitted that the scenes we saw in no way depict an accurate portrayal of what Heaven and Hell look like (glad he clarified that point!). But he then took time to explain the gospel and gave the group an opportunity to pray to receive Christ. Many responded and prayed and considered that day the condition of their heart and what their eternity might look like. This is a good thing!
Do judgment houses give impressionable teens bad doctrine on the nature of Satan, demonology and the end judgment? Yes they do. Is that an irrecoverable sin? Of course not, but we do need to be careful not to embed bad theological thinking as common place.
Teens and adults alike can come away with a further cemented theology that Satan and demons are God's partners in tormenting humans. This taints God's image because that isn't the design He intended nor is it at all consistent with God's loving nature in regards to humans. God has no desire to torment humanity, nor does he delight in the death of the wicked according to Ezekiel.
God has went to amazingly extraordinary lengths to buy humanity back from its separation from Him. A human only goes to Hell after having rejected all attempts by the Holy Spirit to draw humanity to Himself. No one ever goes to Hell with an excuse that they didn't know the Way. No one ever goes to Hell and lifts his eyes in torments without knowing fully why they are there and why they deserve their choice to be there. It's not the ignorant unknowing who go to Hell, but the guilty rejectors of Christ who remain eternally separated from Him. In an act of human will, God gives man to his choice, leaving intact dignity of human choice. He doesn't violate mankind's free will, but desires from that free will those who will choose to die to self in this life and, through Christ, gain eternity with Him.
Happy Fall/Harvest/Festival holiday!
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