Edited by Jim McCrory, Wednesday 17 September 2025 at 07:24
Will There Be a Judgement Day?
“What exists has already been, and what will be has already been,
for God will call to account what has passed.”
— Ecclesiastes 3:15
My wife and I read this last night and were perplexed by its meaning. A bit of research though, helped with the unpacking.
The writer of Ecclesiastes lifts our eyes from the immediacy of daily life to a larger horizon. His words are at once perplexing and comforting. They remind us that time is not linear as we perceive it, but cyclical, enfolded within God’s eternal gaze. To human reason, this is bewildering. We long for clarity, for neat beginnings and endings, but Scripture tells us that “what exists has already been” and “what will be has already been.” God dwells outside of time’s stream, seeing both ends at once.
This truth can unsettle us. If God’s purposes stretch across eternity, then much of life’s apparent disorder—the injustice, the sorrow, the vanity—seems beyond our comprehension. We search for meaning in what is fleeting and wonder why God allows certain things to pass. His workings, the Preacher insists, are not always open to human explanation. They are “perplexing” because His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9).
Yet Ecclesiastes does not leave us in bewilderment. The verse turns: “God will call to account what has passed.” Suddenly, the fog clears. If history is cyclical, if nothing is truly new under the sun, then God remains its fixed point. He is not absent from the pattern; He is the Judge who remembers.
Having watched a video on YouTube yesterday were young people asked who Hitler was? One said an actor, another said a guy with a moustache, another said someone who never existed. Hitler’s deeds have become forgotten by many. But with God, no deed is forgotten. The kindness done in secret, unnoticed by men, lives on before Him. Equally, the cruelty, the neglect, the betrayal of God and of our fellow man—these too are not buried with the passing of time. We may try to hide behind the rocks of distraction, of excuses, even of silence, but there is no rock thick enough to conceal us from His sight. The psalmist writes, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7). The answer is nowhere. No, we cannot hide under a rock.
For those who have lived unjustly, this realization is sobering. Earthly sojourns may appear to escape justice—crimes unpunished, lies unexposed, oppressors dying in peace—but before the gaze of the Eternal One, all accounts remain open until He closes them. For those who walk humbly, however, it is a source of strength. God does not forget. The love poured out, the burdens borne quietly, the prayers whispered in the night—all endure in His remembrance.
Thus, Ecclesiastes 3:15 leaves us in a place of reverence. God’s workings are perplexing, yes. But His justice is certain. Time bends and repeats, but it never erases. At the end, what matters is not whether we fully understood His purposes, but whether we lived in faithfulness, knowing that the Judge of all the earth will do right.
Will There Be a Judgement Day?
Will There Be a Judgement Day?
“What exists has already been, and what will be has already been,
for God will call to account what has passed.”
— Ecclesiastes 3:15
My wife and I read this last night and were perplexed by its meaning. A bit of research though, helped with the unpacking.
The writer of Ecclesiastes lifts our eyes from the immediacy of daily life to a larger horizon. His words are at once perplexing and comforting. They remind us that time is not linear as we perceive it, but cyclical, enfolded within God’s eternal gaze. To human reason, this is bewildering. We long for clarity, for neat beginnings and endings, but Scripture tells us that “what exists has already been” and “what will be has already been.” God dwells outside of time’s stream, seeing both ends at once.
This truth can unsettle us. If God’s purposes stretch across eternity, then much of life’s apparent disorder—the injustice, the sorrow, the vanity—seems beyond our comprehension. We search for meaning in what is fleeting and wonder why God allows certain things to pass. His workings, the Preacher insists, are not always open to human explanation. They are “perplexing” because His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9).
Yet Ecclesiastes does not leave us in bewilderment. The verse turns: “God will call to account what has passed.” Suddenly, the fog clears. If history is cyclical, if nothing is truly new under the sun, then God remains its fixed point. He is not absent from the pattern; He is the Judge who remembers.
Having watched a video on YouTube yesterday were young people asked who Hitler was? One said an actor, another said a guy with a moustache, another said someone who never existed. Hitler’s deeds have become forgotten by many. But with God, no deed is forgotten. The kindness done in secret, unnoticed by men, lives on before Him. Equally, the cruelty, the neglect, the betrayal of God and of our fellow man—these too are not buried with the passing of time. We may try to hide behind the rocks of distraction, of excuses, even of silence, but there is no rock thick enough to conceal us from His sight. The psalmist writes, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7). The answer is nowhere. No, we cannot hide under a rock.
For those who have lived unjustly, this realization is sobering. Earthly sojourns may appear to escape justice—crimes unpunished, lies unexposed, oppressors dying in peace—but before the gaze of the Eternal One, all accounts remain open until He closes them. For those who walk humbly, however, it is a source of strength. God does not forget. The love poured out, the burdens borne quietly, the prayers whispered in the night—all endure in His remembrance.
Thus, Ecclesiastes 3:15 leaves us in a place of reverence. God’s workings are perplexing, yes. But His justice is certain. Time bends and repeats, but it never erases. At the end, what matters is not whether we fully understood His purposes, but whether we lived in faithfulness, knowing that the Judge of all the earth will do right.
Image by Copilot