JUDGMENT
The popular idea of God’s judgment, is, that some time in the far future, in the spiritual world, there will be a post-mortem assize, a literal throne, and judge, and all the paraphernalia of a legal tribunal, where human beings will be sent either to endless happiness or final woe; not for the characters they bore on earth, not for all they did, of good and evil, but that their fate will be determined by the condition they were in during the last few moments of life. So that one whose life was good in the main, but who fell into evil ways during the last few moments in life, will receive nothing for the chief art of his career, but will be endlessly tormented for a day or an hour of sin, while another, who was wicked for seventy years, but good only a day, will escape all punishment for a vile life, and will receive heaven for only a day of obedience. And still further, that the happy one will look from Abraham’s bosom into the lake of fire, and see there the companions of his iniquity on earth, while the bad one will gaze from endless fire into heaven, and see there the man with whom on earth he took sweet counsel in godly companionship. Such a judgment rewards and punishes, not for this life, but for only a small part of it. What is the true doctrine of the divine judgment?
It Is A Joyful Occasion.
“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth; make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the; world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the lord; for he cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.”—Psalm 98:4-9. It is not a scene to cause horror but delight.
It Is In This World.
“Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.”—Psalm 58:11. “He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth.”—Isa. 42:4.
It Is Not Hereafter.
“For judgment I am come into this world.”—John 9:39. “for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.”—John 5:22. “Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.” “Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the widcked and the sinner.”—Prov. 11:31.
It Is Now.
“Now is the judgment of this world.”—John 12:31. “Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.”—Rev. 14:7; 1 Pet. 4:17: “For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” Says Dr. clarke on this passage:
“Judgment must begin at the house of God.—Our Lord had predicted that, previously to the destruction of Jerusalem, his followers would have to endure various calamities; see Matt. 24:9-12,22; Mark 13:12-13; John 16:2; &c. Here his true disciples are called the house or family of God. That the converted Jews suffered much from their brethren, the zealots or factions into which the Jews were at that time divided, needs little proof; and some interpreters think that this was in conformity to the purpose of God; Matt. 23:35. That on you may come all the righteous blood shed from the foundation of the world.”
Macknights’s testimony is the same: “That the Jewish Christians were to be involved in the same punishment; and that it was proper to begin at them as a part of the devoted Jewish nation, notwithstanding they were become the house of God; because the justice of God would, thereby, be more illustriously displayed. But, probably, the word, krima, which we here translate judgment, may mean no more than affliction and distress; for it was a Jewish maxim that, when God was about to pour down some common and general judgment, He began with afflicting his own people, in order to correct and amend them; that they might be prepared for the overflowing scourge.”
It Is For Every Act And Thought.
“But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account therof in the day of judgment.”—Matt. 12:36. “For all these things, God will bring thee into judgment.”—Eccl. 11:19. “God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”—Eccl. 12:14.
Now if every act, and word, and thought whether good or evil, is judged, and so punished or rewarded, it is plain enough that judgment must follow hand in hand with conduct, and cannot be deferred. And it is plain enough that the endless future cannot be determined by the last hours of life. The Biblical language of a throne and a day of judgment are figurative descriptions of the unfailing decisions of the great judge who “every morning doth bring his judgment to light,”—Zeph. 3:5; and who never fails to bring upon each one for his good, just what he deserves; so that God’s judgments “are more to be desired than fine gold, and are sweeter to the taste than honey and the honey-comb,” of all who perceive their beneficent purpose. With these expositions of the nature and character of the Divine judgments, we are prepared to consider the texts that are usually quoted to teach a fearful day of judgment after death, to be followed by unending doom.
JUDGMENT TO COME.
“And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.”—Acts 24:25.
Felix was a Roman pagan—a believer in a future judgment whose punishments were post mortem, and his wickedness, and the iniquity of the pagans around Paul illustrate the evil influence of a belief in a far-off and uncertain, and a disbelief in a near, immediate and certain retribution. Paul preached to Felix, not a remote, but an impending judgment. The Greek kai tou krimatos, tou mellontes esethai, rendered “judgment to come,” ought to be translated by “the judgment about to be.” The passage reads literally, “And as he was discoursing concerning justice, self-government, and that judgment about to come, Felix, being terrified, answered,” etc.
Parkhurst says, “mello signifies, with an infinitive following, to be about to do a thing, futurussum. (Matt. 2:13; 16:27). Both the verb and participle are in the New Testament joined with the infinitive future, as esethai. So likewise in the purest Greek writers.”
Dr. Campbell says: “Mellon often means not future, but near. There is just such a difference bertween estai, and mellei esesthai, in Greek, as there is betweenit will be, and it is about to be in English. This holds particularly in threats and warnings.”
Now Felix was a corrupt man; he was living in open adultery with Drusilla, and was a sample of the wickedness of his times, and as Paul announced the sure results of his wickedness, and of that of his contemporaries, the fearful picture aroused the conscience of the wicked ruler, and he was alarmed. Within ten years, Nero, the Emperor, was killed, and Felix, his favorite, went under in the general downfall, and the awful times that followed vindicated the prophecy of the apostle, and justified the fears of the guilty and conscience-smitten king. The apostle proclaimed to the procurator of Judea the legitimate judgment about to come, and that did come within a decade on him and those who like him were sinners against God and man and their own souls.
THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST.
“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”—Rom. 14:10. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”—2 Cor. 5:10.
A vicious translation destroys the apostle’s meaning in the second passage quoted above. “Done” and “his” are not in the original, but are words supplied by the translators. The passage reads, “That every one may receive the things in body.” The literal reading is, “We must all appear before the tribunal of Christ, so that each one may receive the things through the body,” etc. That is, Jesus came into this world for the purpose of judgment; his tribunal is now set up, and we are all before it, and while in the body we are receiving the consequences of our conduct.
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.
“Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.”—Matt. 10:15. “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell; for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.”—Matt. 11:23-24. “and whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart hence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.”—Mark 6:11. “But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.”—Luke 10:10-14.
Of course these cities were not to go into the eternal world, to be judged. Their day of judgment had passed, and as cities they were conspicuous examples of the consequences of wickedness. Dr. Clarke Observes:—
“The day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah was the time in which the Lord destroyed them by fire and brimstone, out of heaven.”
Hammond:—”I assure you, the punishment or destruction that will light upon that city will be such, that the destruction of Sodom shall appear to have been more tolerable than that.”
Wakefield:—“In the day of vengeance, punishment or trial. This is undoubtedly the genuine sense of the phrase, which has not the least reference to the day of general judgment. All that our Savior intends to say is, that when the temporal calamities of that place come upon it, they will be even worse than those of Sodom and Gomorrah. See this phrase employed in precisely the same meaning by the LXX., in Prov. 6:34.”
CHRIST, THE JUDGE OF THE WORLD.
“Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”—Acts 17:31.
The idea of a literal day of judgment seems to be taught in this language. But it should not be overlooked that it is not a literal day hereafter, but a period, now, that constitutes the era of Christ’s judgment.
“For judgment I am come into this world.”—John 9:39. “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.”—John 5:22. “And hath given him authority to execute judgment also.”—verse 27. “Now is the judgment of this world.”—John 12:31.
Christ’s time of judging this world was prophesied as a day.
“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.”—Zech. 13:1. “In that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one.”—Zech. 14:9. Again: “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.”—Jer. 23:5.
The apostle refers to that period as a day: “The day is at hand.”—Rom. 13:12. “Now is the day of salvation.”—2 Cor. 6:2.
And Jesus himself speaks of his reign, or government, or time of judgment, as a day.
“Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.”—John 8:56.
Macknight says: “In the Hebrew language, to judge, signifies to rule, or govern.“
Jesus came to rule or govern the world, and he shall continue his work till he has called all unto himself, and God is all in all. (1 Cor. 15:24.) Then the Gospel day ends, and Jesus surrenders his office as judge to his Father. Christ’s day of judgment began when he was on earth, and will continue till his object is accomplished, in the reformation of all.
AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die; but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him, shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.”—Heb. 9:27-28.
This text is usually misstated in this shape. “it is appointed unto all men once to die, and after death the judgment.” But the reader of the context will perceive that Paul was not speaking of the physical death of mankind, but of the sacrificial death of the high priest, and was contrasting with the death of Christ, the ceremonial death of the Aaronic priesthood. The language of the original shows this more clearly than does the language of our version. In the Greek, the definite article tois, (the or those) precedes the word translated men, (anthropois), and thus it reads, “it is appointed unto the (or those) men once to die.” What men? The context shows:
“For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, the antitypes of the true ones; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God in our behalf; not that he should offer himself often, even as the High Priset entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others: for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once for all in a completion of the ages hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Andas it is appointed unto those men (that is the high priests) once to die, but after this, judgment: so Christ once offered to bear the sins of the many; and unto them that look for him shall appear the second time without a sin-offering unto salvation.—Heb. 9:24-28.
This is a literal translation. The plain statement is: As the high priests, the antitypes, died a figurative death, annually, (se Exod. 28:29—30), so Christ was offered once for all in the sinner’s behalf. The ordinary reference to the dying of all men leaves the “as” and “so” without meaning or application. But when we see that the apostle was showing the superiority of the mission of Christ over the annual sacrifices of the Jewish high priest. the meaning becomes plain. He employed “the men” as types of the superior sacrifice of Christ.
The reader cannot fail to see that it is not mankind, but certain men, “the men” who all the way through this chapter and the next are compared to Christ, who are said once to die. These men are the priests, or the successors of the high priests under the law. They died, figuratively, once a year, on the great day of atonement in the offering of sacrifices. Exod. 30:1-10—”And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon; and thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning; when he dresseth the lamps he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon. And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements; once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations; it is most holy unto the Lord.”
Having performed this rite, having died by proxy, the high priest entered the holy of holies, and pronounced the sentence of absolution from the mercy seat. Exod. 25:22: Num. 7:89. “And there will I meet with thee, and will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims; and he spake unto him.”
The priests represent Christ, and their death illustrates and prefigures the death of Christ; but man’s death, and an after death judgment bears no relation to the death of Christ. The common use of this text is but little less than an outrage on the sense of the apostle. No one can carefully read this and the following chapter, and fail to see that the language is exclusively applicable to the Jewish high priests and the death of Christ, and has no reference to an after-death judgment.
Judgment begins with each soul on its arrival at the period of accountability, and continues, a severe, but disciplinary process until it converts and saves.
GNASHING OF TEETH.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.—Luke 13:28.
The “Kingdom of God” is the reign of Christ, a spiritual realm of truth and goodness and consequent happiness. It was “at hand” when Christianity was first announced.—Matt. 3:2. It is “not of this world,”—John 18:36. It came to the people when Jesus spoke—Matt. 12: 28, and men pressed into it, —Luke 16:16. It was taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles,—Matt. 21:43, and Jesus declared:
“And many shall come from the east and the west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, but the “children of the kingdom, the Jews, shall be cast out into darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”—Matt. 8:11.
This was when the Saviour’s prophecy was fulfilled.—Luke 13:34-35.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not? Behold your house is left unto you desolate.”
But this was not to be final, for he adds: “verily I say unto you, ye shall not see me until the time shall come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
Dr. Whitby gives the correct view when he says; “To lie down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, doth not signify to enjoy everlasting happiness in heaven with them, but only to become the sons of Abraham through faith,(Gal. 3;7,) and so to be blessed with faithful Abraham coming on them, that they may receive the promise of the spirit, (verse 14) through faith in Christ to be the seed of Abraham and heirs, according to the promise, (verse 29) viz. the promise made to Abraham (Gen. 12:3) renewed to Isaac (Gen. 26:4) and confirmed to Jacob (Gen 28:14) and to be, according to Isaac, the children of promise.” (Gal. 4:28.)
The gnashing of teeth denotes the vexation and wrath of the spiritually proud Jews, when they should find themselves outside the kingdom, while the Gentiles they had so despised, were within. The Rich Man and Lazarus pictures the two classes, and exhibits the wide contrast, in that parable.