088. QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER 40.
QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER 40.
1. On what does the doctrine of the resurrection depend for its support?
2. What philosophical objection is made to it?
3. What is the reply?
4. What Scripture proofs are brought from the Old Testament?
5. What from the New Testament?
6. How is it proved that the same body laid in the grave is to be raised?
7. What is implied in the spirituality of the resurrection body?
9. How is it shown that both the just and the unjust shall be raised, and what is said of the bodies of the latter?
10. Are the whole human family to be raised?
11. Are all to be raised at the same time?
12. What is the proof?
13.How is it shown that this doctrine encouraged the hopes of the Old Testament saints?
14. How is it shown that it animated the apostles and first Christians?
15. What should be its influence on Christians in all ages?
16. What would be the effect if the doctrine were renounced? THIS is one of the most solemn and deeply-interesting subjects exhibited in the Bible; yet it rarely occupies a degree of serious thought commensurate with its importance. Many, if they reflect on the subject at all, view it as a matter so immensely distant, that it fails to impress their minds with that solemnity which its importance should inspire.
I. We inquire, first, for the evidences of the fact that there will be a general judgment.
1. The certainty of this general judgment may be argued, first, from the attributes of God. All who believe in the existence of God, must admit that he is a being of infinite perfections. He must not only be possessed of infinite wisdom and goodness, but also of infinite justice, equity, and rectitude. And as he has seen fit to create rational, intelligent, moral agents, his government over them must not only be in accordance with the nature with which he has endued them, but also in harmony with his own perfections. Hence he must not govern them either as inanimate substances or as irrational beings, but as accountable subjects. This requires that they be placed under a law which is holy, just, and good, according to the nature of God their maker; and that they be rewarded or punished, not according to the whim or caprice of an arbitrary tyrant, but in consistency with the principles of strict justice and equity.
Upon the hypothesis that the existence of man terminates with his present mode of being, agreeably to all the rules of reasoning which we are capable of appreciating, we can see no possible way of reconciling the allotments and fortunes of human beings in this life with the principles of a righteous administration. Nothing can be more obvious to every candid, reflecting mind, than the fact that mankind are not rewarded and punished, in this world, “according to their works.” The most wicked and abominable often occupy positions the most elevated and advantageous. They, in many instances, are comparatively free from toil and care, tribulation and affliction, surrounded with splendor, and luxuriating in wealth and worldly pleasure; while the pious and the good, the amiable and the virtuous, are doomed to a life of toil and hardships, penury and want, affliction and suffering. Can this be reconciled with the justice and equity of God? Deny the righteous awards of a future judgment, and it is impossible. Even admit that, in many cases, even in this life, the virtuous, to some extent, share the reward of their merit, and the vicious are overtaken with condign punishment for their crimes, yet still, so long as there exists a solitary exception to this rule, the justice of God must look to an hereafter for the liquidation of her claims. While the history of the world mirrors to our gaze a Job or a Lazarus in affliction, a Bunyan in prison, a Christian martyr at the stake, or an innocent babe in the agonies of death, the justice of God must ever point the sufferer to his final reward in the future. A day of future reckoning is demanded, not only to furnish a reward for suffering innocence in this world, but also to mete out to the wicked the just punishment of their sins. What though a Haman may be “hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai;” what though a Herod may be “eaten of worms,” yet, still, while there remains one instance of a fraud, an oppression, a slander, a murder, or a wrong in any shape, unpunished in this life, the sword of justice must still point to the judgment of the last day, where every secret sin shall be fully disclosed and duly punished.
2. That there will be a day of future judgment, may be argued from the power of natural conscience. In this way, “conscience does make cowards of us all.” How can we account for the fact that the criminal is often made to tremble in communion with his own heart, with his own conscience and his God, when no human eye is upon him, and he has no particular ground to apprehend detection or punishment? Oft under such circumstances he trembles to be alone in the dark, and is made to carry a hell in his own bosom. What can produce this dread and horror, but the “fearful apprehension of fiery indignation” in a day of future reckoning?
We find this testimony of conscience everywhere, in both pagan and Christian lands. Its line has “gone out through all the earth,” and its voice to “the ends of the world.” This conscience, like a pursuing specter, has shaken its “gory locks” in the face of the assassin, and caused him to quake with fear in his secluded chamber; and it has planted the pillow of the guilty monarch with thorns. How can we account for this, but by admitting the fact that it is the “voice of God in man” - an implantation of his all-pervading Spirit? But are we to conclude that God is mocking his creatures? that he has implanted this monitor, uselessly to “torment them before the time?” Why did that smiting of the knees so suddenly seize upon the voluptuous Chaldean monarch, when his eye traced the “handwriting upon the wall?” And why did wicked Felix “tremble,” when he listened to the reasoning of St. Paul about a “judgment to come?” It was because this divinely-bestowed internal monitor pointed them to a day of future reckoning and punishment.
3. But the doctrine of a future general judgment is very explicitly declared in the inspired word of God. In reference to a day of judgment, David says: “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.” Psalms 50:3-4. Solomon exclaims: “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.”Ecclesiastes 11:9. And again: “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:14. Daniel prophesies thus: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Daniel 7:9-10. Our Saviour gives a particular account of the proceedings of the judgment-day in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew. He commences with these words: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.”
St. Paul says: “For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.”
Romans 14:10. Again: “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. Again: “And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”Hebrews 9:27.
St. John says: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Revelation 20:11-12. Again: “And behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:12. The scriptures here quoted are ample to satisfy all who believe in the inspiration of the Bible, that at the termination of the present dispensation there will be a general judgment.
II. We next inquire concerning the time of this judgment - when will it take place?
1. No one, even of the inspired writers, has pretended to fix the precise date of this occurrence. How presumptuous, therefore, for uninspired mortals to attempt it! And how little short of blasphemy should all such assumptions be viewed, when it is remembered that our Saviour has declared that “of that day and hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” Matthew 24:36. Perfectly accordant with this position is also the declaration of St, Peter, that “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” 2 Peter 3:10.
2. Some have supposed that the righteous will be raised from the dead and judged, at the commencement of Christ’s millennial reign, and that then will take place what the Scriptures style the “first resurrection.” But this view cannot be reconciled with the general tenor of Scripture on the subject, which represents the judgment as one grand connected process at the end of the world. It is “a day” which “God hath appointed” - “the day of judgment” - “the day of the Lord” - “the great and terrible day.” All such scriptures are directly against the notion that there will be two days of judgment - the one for the righteous, and the other for the wicked, separated from each other by the lapse of thousands of years. The Scriptures evidently seem to place the judgment at the end of the world, immediately subsequent to the general resurrection.
Admitting, as many infer from the twentieth chapter of Revelation, that the martyrs will be literally raised from the dead, (a position which may well be doubted,) and will live and reign with Christ “the thousand years,” still it by no means follows, either that all the righteous dead will then be raised or that any portion of the general judgment will then take place.
3. It may be asked, Why should the judgment be deferred till the end of the world? Why might not each individual receive his final sentence at death, and enter at once on his eternal destiny? To this it might be enough to reply, that the all-wise Judge has not so ordered it. But if we may be allowed to infer, from apparent fitness, the reasons of the divine conduct, we think there are several considerations which indicate the propriety of placing the judgment at the end of the world.
(1)It will promote the declarative glory of God. In the presence of an assembled universe, it will then be shown that “the Judge of all the earth will do right.” The sentence of the Judge, whether for acquittal or condemnation, will then be sanctioned by the countless millions of angels and redeemed spirits.
(2) The fact that the influence of human actions extends beyond the present life of the individual, indicates the propriety of deferring the judgment till earthly things shall be no more. The example of both the good and the bad “lives after them.” The influence of the example and writings of such men as St. Paul, Luther, Wesley, Baxter, Doddridge, Washington, and Wilberforce, will continue to bless the world to the latest generation. On the other hand, the influence of the example and writings of the wicked still remain to curse the world through successive generations. The pernicious writings of Hume, Bolingbroke, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Volney, are still in the world, exerting their influence over the destinies of immortal souls. It is reasonable, therefore, that the judgment be deferred till the end of the world. Then the entire actual influence of each individual can be more fully exhibited in the view of an intelligent universe, that all may witness that every man shall be rewarded “according as his work shall be.”
III.Important events to precede the general judgment.
Nothing can be more certain than the fact, or more solemn and important than the process, of the general judgment. In portraying the scenes of the last day, many have drawn largely upon their imagination. It is, perhaps, but an insufficient apology for the freedom thus taken with a matter so solemn and important, that after the utmost efforts at description, all must fail to reach the fullness of the reality. Yet it must be admitted that, as all our knowledge upon this subject is derived from revelation, it is but a sober dictate of wisdom that we endeavor to learn all that God has seen proper to reveal concerning this matter, and then, forbearing to indulge in flights of imagination, see to it, that we secure a suitable preparation for that “great and terrible day.”
1. The preaching of the gospel to all the nations of the earth, we are assured, must precede the general judgment. This fact we infer from our Saviour’s words: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
Matthew 24:14. We are aware that Dr. Clarke, and some modern critics, interpret the entire prediction in this chapter as referring exclusively to the destruction of Jerusalem. It cannot be denied that the passage does refer to that event; and, perhaps, such is its primary import. But it seems probable that this, like some other prophecies of Scripture, had a double sense, referring not only to the destruction of Jerusalem, but also to the end of the world - the former being typical of the latter. We have not room here to discuss this question particularly, nor is it a matter of importance in this connection. But when we remember the question proposed by the disciples, to which this discourse of our Saviour is a reply - “Tell us when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” and when we remember, farther, that our Saviour also here used this language: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” - when we remember these things, we cannot help believing that, not only the destruction of Jerusalem, but also the end of the world, is here the subject of prediction. Hence, before that “great day” shall come, the gospel message shall be delivered to all the nations of the earth, that all may receive, or reject, the great salvation.
2. The Bible predicts “signs and wonders” of solemn import, as precursors of the general judgment: “And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.” Acts 2:19-20. “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21:25-27.
3. The manner of our Saviour’s coming to judgment. On this subject, also, we know only what has been revealed; but these Scripture announcements are glowing and impressive. On this subject we read: “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
“The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8. “And ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
Mark 14:62. “Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” Revelation 1:7. And once more: “I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.” Revelation 20:11.
Thus it appears that He who was once the “babe of Bethlehem,” lying in the manger - He who was once the meek “Man of sorrows,” having not “where to lay his head,” will again descend to this lower world, not, as once, the helpless infant, the “despised and rejected of men,” the insulted, buffeted, scourged, and crucified One, but as the “mighty God,” the Sovereign of the universe, the “Judge of all men.” He comes now, not to weep over Jerusalem; not to suffer hunger, and toil, and weariness; not to listen to the malignant cries of fiendish foes - “Away with him! Away with him!” but, seated upon a throne of glory more brilliant than ten thousand suns, to sway his judicial scepter over men and devils. If his rapt disciples were so transported with his glory on the mount of transfiguration, what will be the effect upon the gazing myriads of admiring saints, when they shall behold him coming with “ten thousand times ten thousand angels,” encircled with his “great glory” upon the throne of judgment!
4. The next grand event ushering in the judgment process is, the raising of the dead. “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.”… “All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” John 5:28-29. “The dead, small and great, shall stand before God.” How astonishing, how sublime, the scene! The awful trump of God, pouring its shrill tones louder and more terrific than ten thousand thunders, shall awake from their dusty slumbers the millions of earth’s buried children. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” tombs burst, vaults open, marble piles are scattered, the dust stirs, “the earth casts out her dead,” the sea gives up her sepulchered millions, death and the grave yield their prey, while countless angels collect the saints at the right hand of the Judge. But still the trumpet sounds; louder and more terrific waxes the awful peal; and now the wicked come forth - in countless throngs they leave their graves: covered with “shame and everlasting contempt,” they lift the despairing wail - “Mountains and rocks fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb! for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” But the resistless summons places them on the left hand of the Judge.
IV.The solemn process and final issues of the judgment.
1. Jesus, the Son of God, presides as the enthroned Judge. This fact the Scriptures plainly teach. Our Saviour declares: “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son.” John 5:22. St. Paul announces that Jesus “was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.” Acts 10:42. And that God “hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.”
Acts 17:31. Various other scriptures assert the same doctrine. The mediatorial work is emphatically the reign of Christ. By and through him the Father stoops in mercy to redeem his apostate creatures. Through him is given to all the tender of gospel salvation. And as all men, since the Fall, are held responsible, as probationers under the provisions of the new covenant, for the acceptance or rejection of eternal life, so all shall be summoned to account under the administration of that Mediator, for the manner in which they have treated the gospel call of reconciliation. The fact that Jesus Christ is to preside as final Judge in that “great and notable day,” not only harmonizes with the principles of the mediatorial scheme, but is strikingly adapted to the condition of the persons to be judged. To the saints, what joyful assurance will be derived from the fact, that he whom they meet upon his throne of judgment is the same “compassionate High-priest” who “bore their sins in his own body on the tree!” On the other hand, with what guilt and shame must the rejecters of the gospel, the malignant foes, the foul blasphemers, and the wicked murderers of our Lord, be compelled to stand as criminals before the bar of him whom they have so scornfully rejected and derided! With what anguish shall they then “look upon him whom they have pierced!”
2. Before the judgment-seat shall stand all men - of all nations and all ages - the entire race of Adam. From the scrutiny of that fearful ordeal there is no possibility of escape. Not only mankind, but devils too, will there be judged; for God hath reserved them in “everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.” Jude 1:6. What imagination can conceive the magnitude of the throng, or the sublimity of the scene! The Judge sits enthroned, while he places the righteous on the right, and the wicked on the left; but with what different emotions do they await the solemn proceeding!
3. But by what law, or according to what rule, will the judgment be conducted? The “books will be opened.” Whether this will be literal or not, we do not know, nor need we inquire. One thing is certain: it will be a “righteous judgment.” Men will be judged according to their privileges and opportunities - according to the light of the dispensation under which they have lived: the heathen, by the law of nature; the Jews, by the law of Moses; and Christian nations, by the gospel. There will be, as declared by St. Paul, “no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law… (For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another:) in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” Romans 2:11-16.
4. What will be the subject-matter of adjudication? It will be no contest for literary fame or military glory, between ambitious aspirants. The pride of learning, the blandishments of place, the aristocracy of wealth, and the insignia of power, are all forgotten. Nothing is regarded but moral qualities. The only inquiry will be, Who is good, and who is bad? Who has lived according to the light of his dispensation, and who has “loved darkness rather than light, because his deeds were evil”? How different from the judgments of this world will be the estimate then placed upon all that now engages the minds, the hearts, and the pursuits of men! How worthless to the mighty conquerors will then appear the thrones to which they ascended, “with garments dripping wet with human gore!” What a sting will the memory of all his sensual gratifications then be to the abandoned voluptuary! What worthless trash, in the view of the sordid miser, will then be the golden pelf he now so stupidly adores! And what veriest trifles will then appear all those transitory things for which the immortal soul is now so willingly bartered! The “veil shall then be torn from the face of all nations.” False colors will lose their attractions; and fictitious appearances will be converted into realities. Then vice will appear in all its naked deformity, and virtue in all her unfading charms. In the investigations of that day, the entire field of moral conduct will be swept. Nothing in that department will be omitted. Every act, and word and thought - all that comes under the head of moral right or wrong - all that constitutes character morally good or bad - will be brought into view, and taken into the account. What an astonishing revealment of hidden things will then take place! What an exposure of midnight crime! What a mirror of lives! What an unfolding of hearts!
Some speculations, more curious than useful, have been put forth concerning the forms and details of the proceedings of the judgment. The question has been discussed: Will “books be opened” and used literally? To this we simply reply, We do not know. But this much is clearly implied: the process will be conducted with as much minute and detailed accuracy, as though every item were distinctly read off from a legible record. There will be no liability to omission or mistake.
Again, it has been asked, Will the past sins of the righteous, which had been forgiven in this world, be specifically exhibited before the judgment-seat? On the one hand, it is argued that they will, because it is written, “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” On the other hand, it is contended that they will not; for God says, concerning them, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Whether the past sins of the righteous will be specifically exposed to public view in that immense crowd, or not, it is clearly inferable, from the general tenor of Scripture, that they will not be so exhibited as to mar the happiness of God’s redeemed; but, on the contrary, the remembrance of them shall only increase their gratitude and felicity.
5. In conclusion, we notice the final issues of the judgment. These are set forth in the sentence to be pronounced. The assembled race of Adam, with all the “angels which kept not their first estate,” will then be standing before the bar of the inexorable Judge of all. Their entire history, as accountable agents, has been made manifest. Their probation has been closed forever. The reign of mercy, and the offer of pardon to the sinner, are over. The past is irretrievable. The future is now to be fixed by stern decree. The final destiny of all is now to be sealed. How solemn the moment! How pregnant with issues of the most awful import! The testimony is closed. Holy angels and redeemed saints have borne witness to the truthfulness of the presentation of character and conduct; and devils, and wicked men, bow their knees in confession of their guilt. And now the Judge proceeds to announce the final awards. To those on his right hand he says: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But to those on his left hand he says: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.” But the Scriptures inform us that at the great day of judgment this earth shall be consumed by fire. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up.” 2 Peter 3:10. The magnificence and awful grandeur of this scene - the passing away of the heavens, the melting of the elements, and the burning of the earth - we shall not attempt to portray. But this will be “the end of earth” - at least in its present state. The burning of the world is but the consuming of the hive from which the rising dead - a countless swarm - have just issued. It has filled its measure in the divine purpose. It has furnished a theater for sin’s destructive sway, and death’s appalling dominion, as well as for redemption’s glorious achievements. But now the visible heavens and the earth shall be no more. But how infinitely more important than the material universe are the destinies of immortal intelligences! While we leave dissolving nature to perish by the action of the “flaming fire,” let us pause a moment, and contemplate the departure of all from the solemn judgment of the last day.
Let us look at the import of the final sentence: “Depart from ME.” - What! must they be driven from the presence of their God, the center and source of all bliss? “Ye cursed.” - Not allowed to go alone! No; they must bear away upon their heads the burning curse of their Judge! “Into everlasting fire.” - They must go into a place of most excruciating torment, where the action of the keenest element must prey forever upon their undying sensibilities. “Prepared for the devil and his angels.” - The masters “to whom they have yielded themselves servants to obey” -fiends of darkness - are their only, their doomed, companions forever and ever! “But what shall be the funeral obsequies of a lost soul? Where shall we find the tears fit to be wept at such a spectacle? Or could we realize the calamity in all its extent, what tokens of commiseration or concern would be deemed equal to the occasion? Would it suffice for the sun to veil his light, and the moon her brightness? to cover the ocean with mourning, and the heavens with sackcloth? Or, were the whole fabric of nature to become animated and vocal, would it be possible for her to utter a groan too deep, or a cry too piercing, to express the magnitude and extent of such a catastrophe?” How tremendous, then, how overwhelmingly awful, must be that sentence which shall consign to remediless ruin the millions of the damned! But how far different the award of the righteous! “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” - Approach near the Redeemer, and receive that blessing which God only can bestow. “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” - Your race is run - receive the prize. The battle has been fought, and the victory won - receive the crown, and enter the kingdom. And thus they leave the bar of judgment to enter the joys of their Lord on high, where they shall forever be with him, beholding his glory, and basking in the beams of his unbounded love.
“Lo! the heavenly spirit towers, Like flames o’er nature’s funeral pyre, Triumphs in immortal powers, And claps her wings of fire!”