173. II. A General Judgment.

II. A General Judgment.

1. The Scripture Proof.—Whether there shall be a general judgment, one in which all shall be judged at the same time, is a question which only the Scriptures can answer. There are evidences of reason for a future judgment, but not such as furnish a sufficient basis for the doctrine of a general judgment, though sufficient for its defense against such objections as it may encounter. A few appropriate texts will furnish, sufficiently, the Scripture proofs of a general Judgment. Most of the necessary texts are already quite familiar, as they have been used in the presentation of other facts of eschatology; hence we may the more briefly present them here. We begin with the words of our Lord respecting the end of the world (Matthew 25:31-46). Here the facts are: the coming of Christ in his glory, with all the holy angels; his session upon the throne of his glory; the gathering of all nations before him; the separation between the evil and the good; the final rewarding of each class. Surely these are the facts of a general judgment. “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 judgment of the world in an appointed day of the future must be a general judgment. After asserting the moral responsibility of all men, St. Paul says: “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; . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (Romans 2:12; Romans 2:16). This is the truth of an appointed time in which all shall be judged. In St. John’s sublime vision of the judgment its general character is clearly seen (Revelation 20:11-13). There is the great white throne; and the dead, small and great, are before God; and all are judged according to their works. In no words could a general judgment be more clearly set forth.

It is objected to a general judgment, which must be delayed until the end of the world, that it is inconsistent with an intermediate state under judicial treatment, because the subjects of such a state must be judged prior to its inception. It is also maintained that this objection is the weightier if this state is in the places of final destiny. There is little force in the objection on either ground; indeed, none at all. That we are all the while the subjects of the divine judgment implies no impropriety in a judgment at death; and no more does the latter imply any impropriety in a final judgment after the resurrection. Neither can the places of souls in the intermediate state concern the propriety of such a judgment. The long delay is urged as another objection. There are many delays in the final judgments of human courts, while meantime the subjects are held under judicial treatment; and such delays are often justified by wise reasons. And if comparatively short they may yet be as long in comparison with the narrow sphere of human judicature. Nor can there be any impropriety or wrong in such judicial ministries of the divine wisdom as may precede a final judgment.

2. Manner of the Judgment.—The time of the judgment is designated as a day, but with the idea of a definite period of the future rather than of its duration. The length of the time is not revealed; and we have no means of knowing what it shall be. Nor can we know any thing of the manner of the judgment. It is represented as in the order of a court, but such representation may be largely figurative, so far as the actual manner is concerned, yet with the deepest meaning as to all that constitutes its reality. The manner must be such as will answer the chief end of the judgment—the vindication of God in his moral government. Such a manner, however now hidden from us, must surely be within the resources of his infinite wisdom and power.