When will the Judgment Seat of Christ Take Place?

By Paul Tatham 
tatham47@hotmail.com

The Bible mentions several judgments that are yet to transpire. The two most important are the Great White Throne Judgment and the Judgment Seat of Christ.

The GWTJ is covered in Revelation 20. It is for unbelievers, takes place after the Millennium (Rev 20:7), and determines their degree of punishment in the Lake of Fire.

The JSOC is covered in Romans 14 and II Corinthians 5. From the context, we know that both passages are dealing with believers, not unbelievers. At this ceremony, believers will be rewarded to the degree that they invested their lives for the Lord.

The question at hand is when will the JSOC take place? It has to be after the Rapture, the Tribulation, and even the Millennium. All those people who go into the Mill will be Christians, but they, and their children born during the Mill, will still have their free will, as evidenced by the Satan-led rebellion at the end of the Mill. 

Therefore, most residents of the Mill will need to be rewarded at the JSOC for their faithfulness while other God-rejecting residents born during the Mill will need to be punished at the GWTJ. 

We are told when the GWTJ will take place (Rev 20:7) but not told when the JSOC will take place. Since the Mill is the last big event on the prophetic calendar, this means that both the JSOC and the GWTJ will have to wait until after the Mill so as to accommodate both believers and unbelievers of all ages.

Furthermore, the JSOC has to take place after the Rapture, the Tribulation, and the Millennium, because Romans 14 states that “all believers shall stand before the JSOC...every knee shall bow…every tongue confess...every believer shall give account...." 

So, if there is only one JSOC, all human beings who ever lived must be there, regardless of when and where they lived. To answer our initial question, this leaves us at the end of the Millennium and beginning of the Eternal State.