01.03.07. The Judgment of Christendom

Part III. Chapter VII. THE JUDGMENT OF CHRISTENDOM The first resurrection and the rapture of the saints have carried our contemplation heaven­ward; but it is now recalled to what is passing on the earth. The one transaction is the exact reverse of the other. The Virgin Bride is called upward to the marriage supper of the Lamb; the apostate Spouse of Christ is now cast down and publicly divorced by her long dishonored Lord. The punishment meted out to her “These shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire,” (Revelation 17:16) —is according to a very ancient law: “And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire,” (Leviticus 21:9). This fallen daughter of God has persisted in her fornication with the kings of the earth for centuries; and they with whom she has glorified herself and lived deliciously now turn against her and become the providential instru­ments of her destruction, saying to the Almighty: “Thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot: bring her forth and let her be burnt,” (Genesis 38:24). Graphic and lifelike to the highest degree are the delineations of the papal apostasy. As the true Church of Christ is set forth under the double similitude of a bride and of a city, so is the false. And one has only closely to compare the details of the harlot’s photograph in Revelation 17:1-18 with the lurid painting of Babylon the Great in Revelation 18:1-24 to perceive that the subject is the same in each. The scarlet and purple, the gold and precious stones and pearls, are found in both de­scriptions: the same sin of wantonness with the kings of the earth; the same indictment of persecuting God’s saints; and the same doom of being “utterly burned with fire” belong to each. Only in the first portrayal the kings of the earth are seen executing the divine vengeance upon the apostate bride; while in the second they are represented as bewailing and lamenting her doom, even as a profligate will sometimes weep and mourn over his murdered paramour. This judgment seems to be executed in two stages, gradual and sudden, harmonizing with the two stages of the judgment of the Man of Sin as foretold in Thessalonians: “Whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” The first process is described thus: “And the ten horns which thou sawest and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire,” (Revelation 17:16). The beast here must be the same which carries the harlot; it cannot be an individual Antichrist, therefore, else we should have the grotesque figure of the woman riding upon a man, a symbolical monstrosity of which revelation could not be guilty. Besides, there is no precedent in Scripture for making a beast signify an individual man. If Daniel gives the key to Revelation, as is generally admitted, a beast means a dynasty or civil government. It is the body of the beast, the Papal Empire, with its ten kingdoms, including rulers, people, terri­tory, and dominion, that is here evidently meant. These that have long supported the harlot church now turn and rend her. It is useless to say that by identifying the papacy with the beast, this verse would compel the conclusion that the Roman Pope finally destroys the Roman Church. There is a Head and a Body of the true Church; the Head is called The Christ, ‘o cpistoV (1 Corinthians 11:13), and the Body is called The Christ, ‘o cpistoV (1 Corinthians 12:12); but it does not follow, therefore, that when it is said that “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it,” we must conclude that He loved Himself and gave Himself for Him­self; for though Christ and the Church are mys­tically one, their actions and offices are separable. So the papacy, as head of the Roman Empire in its ten-kingdomed condition, is called the beast (Revelation 13:4-6); and the empire itself, as the body, is called the beast (Revelation 17:3). But though symbolically one their actions and career are distinguishable. It is clearly the body of the beast that is figured as carrying and supporting the harlot, —the Roman Empire under the sway of the Roman Church, the empire supporting the Church, and the Church ruling the empire. But when the consuming judgments begin, this is changed. Just what was predicted, we have lived to see, —the kingdoms once subject to the papacy snapping their concordats and alliances, till the woman’s bit and bridle are utterly broken; those kingdoms turning upon her and stripping her of her endowments, rejecting her authority, and tearing away her territory. So we have beheld it wonderfully come to pass in these latter days. Events often constitute an indisputable exegesis. So long ago as A. D. 1607, Brightman, the com­mentator, “searching what and what manner of time” the Spirit signified by this prophecy, con­cluded that about A. D. 1800 the dismantlement of the Roman Church would begin. In August, 1797, the French ambassador in Rome wrote to Napoleon: “Discontent is at its height in the papal states; the government will fall to pieces of itself. We are making it consume by a slow fire. It will soon crumble into dust.” The next year the papal government was overthrown, and an infidel democracy reared on its ruins. “The churches and convents,” says Alison, “the palaces of the cardinals and nobility, were laid waste. The spoliation exceeded all that the Goths and Vandals had effected.” 1 A further exhibition of the same process of consumption we have witnessed, especially in Italy and in France, since the recent loss of the pope’s temporal power.

Then follows a subsequent stage in the retribu­tion, when the awful cry breaks upon our ears: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great!” It is history repeating itself. Every age has ended in judgment, and so shall the present dispensation close. As apostate Judaism met its doom in the destruction of Jerusalem; so apostate Christen­dom expiates its sentence in the overthrow of mystical Babylon. This destruction will fall, we believe, upon the literal city of seven hills, as the visible centre and capital of the apostasy. What other systems beside the papal may be involved in the judgment is a most solemn question to be pondered. It is plainly intimated that the mother has daughters, and therefore that Babylon the Great has outlying suburbs which are in fellow­ship with her. Let him that readeth understand. The extent of this judgment needs to be carefully considered, since some would discredit the plain interpretation which we follow, by declaring that it implies the consigning of every subject of the pope to perdition, as it is declared that “if any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand,” he shall be consigned to everlasting punishment. But here the analogy of previous judgments throws striking light. Before the doom of fire and brim­stone fell upon Sodom, the warning was sounded, — “Up! get thee out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city;” and heeding the call, some were found sheltered in little Zoar ere the burn­ing rain descended. So, likewise, before Jerusa­lem was destroyed, the Saviour’s previous admo­nition was enforced: “Then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains;” and the holy seed gained refuge from the awful slaughter in the hilltop of Pella. The Apocalypse predicts a similar warning be­fore the fall of Babylon: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins.” This summons, we believe, is synchronous, or nearly so, with the descending of the Lord in glory (Revelation 18:4). We conclude this because the Church is summoned to exercise judgment,— “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her according to her works” —which she is everywhere forbidden to do in her present suffering state, but which she is to do at the time of her reign and judgment with Christ at His coming in glory. Before the sentence goes forth, “Babylon the Great is fallen,” the gracious call of separation will have been sounded: “Come forth, my people, out of her,” and then “they that are Christ’s at His coming,” whether hitherto in Babylon or without her, whether in their graves or living on the earth, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, where, standing with the Lamb upon Mount Zion with the hundred and forty-four thousand having the Father’s name written in their foreheads, they shall see afar off the doom of such as persisted in worshiping the beast and wearing his name upon their brows. As some true saints of God have been found in Rome during all her history, so we doubt not it will be to the end. But overwhelming doom will fall upon such as persevere in their idola­tries after this last warning cry shall have been sounded. If then “any man is worshiping the beast, and receiving his mark on his forehead or upon his hand,” “the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation,” 2 (Revelation 14:9).

Hark the song of exultation breaking forth from heaven! A great voice of much people —of myriads whose blood the harlot drank—is now heard saying: “Alleluia! salvation, and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are His judgments; for He hath judged the great whore which did cor­rupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand,” (Revelation 19:2). And immediately a triumphal pro­cession is seen moving forth from the direction whence comes the song: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth He judge and make war,” (Revelation 19:11). This majestic rider we met at the very opening of Apocalyptic history (Revelation 6:2), but then He was going forth in peaceful con­quest: “And I saw, and behold a white horse, and He that sat upon him had a bow,”— “Thou didst ride upon Mine horses, upon thy chariots of salvation: thy bow was made quite bare,” (Habakkuk 3:9), “and a crown was given unto Him.” This is the “stephanos,” the crown which in Scripture is so repeatedly set before the Christian as the prize for his spiritual overcoming, and which is fitly worn by Him who in the days of His flesh could say, “I have overcome the world.” “And He went forth conquering and in order to conquer,” —not only to effect the present victories of redemption, but to win the ultimate sovereignty of the world. This final conquest has now arrived; for as the white-horse rider comes forth from heaven, we behold, “and on His head were many crowns.” Not the stephanos now, but the diadema is the symbol of His supremacy. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ; and all the crowns of all the kings have passed over upon His brow. The long suc­cession of world-wide monarchies which we be­held in Daniel’s vision has intervened; the stone cut out of the mountain without hands now smites the image upon its feet, and itself fills the whole world. How striking the picture of the final transfer of earth’s sovereignty to Immanuel! To Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the first in this line of universal monarchs, God said: “Thou, O king, art a king of kings,” (Daniel 2:37). Now that this bloody line terminates in the over­throw of mystical Babylon—whose sovereign, the pope, has long arrogated both temporal and ecclesiastical supremacy—Messiah takes up both the successions and also takes the long abused title attaching thereto: “And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords,” (Revelation 19:16).

It is necessary here to explain how this judg­ment of Christendom is related to that of the world as a whole. This will only be possible by giving careful attention to the law of prophetic perspective which rules so constantly in the di­vine predictions. That wondrous judgment par­able of our Lord, recorded in the twenty-fifth of Matthew, seems to be opened out by later rev­elations so as to have an age-long reach. Resurrection and judgment are counterparts; and as the rising of the dead, foretold by Christ in the Gospel of John (John 5:28), though seeming to be a simultaneous event for the righteous and for the wicked, — “The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” —is shown in the later Revelation of John to take place in two stages a thousand years apart: so the judgments in which these respective resurrec­tions issue are separated by an entire millennium. Laying the prophecy of the 25th of Matthew alongside this of the 5th of John, we judge that they exactly harmonize; that the time when the Son of man shall “sit upon the throne of His glory “is the whole millennial period; that the time when the righteous dead shall hear the King say unto them, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” is at the coming of Christ in the beginning of the millennium, which is “the resurrection of life:” that time when the unrighteous dead shall hear the sentence, “De­part from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire,” is at the close of the millennium, which is “the resurrection of condemnation.” While this is so, we should not err in saying that in one sense the judgment of the righteous and of the wicked is simultaneous. For since resurrection is the great declarative act of justification, the coming forth of the righteous from the tomb at the advent of Christ is their open acquittal and vindication be­fore the universe; while the non-resurrection of the wicked is their silent condemnation, —which silent condemnation, however, is to be made pub­lic and visible at the second resurrection and the great white-throne judgment at the end of the millennium.

It has been maintained that the scene in the 25th of Matthew is strictly and only a judgment of the living nations. It is clearly this; but the question is, whether this prophetic picture of our Lord is not a composite photograph comprehend­ing in a single view all the stages and subjects of the judgment.

While acknowledging the exceeding difficulty of harmonizing all the texts relating to this sub­ject, we conceive of the great transaction thus: Judgment begins at the house of God when the Master of the house returns in the clouds of heaven. Instantly there is a separation of the wheat from the tares; of the sheep from the goats; of the Bride from the harlot. By resur­rection and translation, the faithful living and the faithful dead are instantly brought into one company in the skies; by non-resurrection and devastating judgments, the apostate dead and the apostate living are brought into the other company in Hades. Thus, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, judgment is pronounced for both classes.

Now the reward of the righteous begins. That manifestation predicted in the words, “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 which he hath done, whether it be good or bad,” at last takes place. This is not a judgment of believers as to the question of life or death; into such judgment it is distinctly declared they do not enter: “Ver­ily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condem­nation,” — kpisin, judgment,— “but is passed from death unto life,” (John 5:24). The first resur­rection is itself the award of life; and they who now stand in their risen and immortal bodies have passed beyond all possible inquisition con­cerning the inheritance of life eternal. But into strict and solemn investigation concerning their works they do now come; for at length is that Scripture fulfilled: “Every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, be­cause it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is,” (1 Corinthians 3:13). Doubtless there will stand before the Lord in that day many who are saved but unrewarded, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, but not recompensed at the resurrection of the just; their works burned up as worthless, but themselves saved so as by fire, (1 Corinthians 3:15). But to such as have borne the cross and endured hardness, this is the time of reward: “Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to man according as his work shall be.” And this recompense we believe will consist in no vague and transcendental joys of song, and rapture, and repose. That repeated strain in the parable which follows that of the ten virgins — “Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things” —seems to indicate the nature of the saints’ inheritance. Reigning with Christ over the earth throughout the millennium, their rank in His manifested kingdom will be according to their fidelity during the time of His absence. In the judgment of the nations which now follows, they will be associated with their Lord, — “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” (1 Corinthians 6:2) —and in their nearness to Him in honor and authority will consist the greatness of their reward. It is not necessary to believe that the saints’ reward will be altogether earthly or civil, but nevertheless there is a meaning which must not be spiritualized away in the beatitude of our Lord: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” (Matthew 5:5); and in the award of the nobleman returning from a far country to set up his kingdom: “Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities,” (Luke 19:17). At the end of the millennium occurs the sec­ond resurrection. So far as there is a quicken­ing of “the rest of the dead” —those left behind at the sound of the advent trumpet a thousand years before—it is strictly a “resurrection unto judgment.” Here, in the vision of the great white throne which follows, we find “the book of life” opened, and “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Those whose names were in the book have already been living and reigning with Christ a thousand years; therefore, unless we think of them as now leaving their thrones and crowns, and coming before the bar of God to be tried for their lives, we cannot conceive of their being the subjects of this solemn inquisition: and as we have already seen, the Scripture declares that they will not be, since they have already passed from death unto life, and come not into judgment.

But, holding that the righteous and unrighteous still die during the millennium, it appears that there will be saints as well as sinners in the second resurrection. Hence there will be for such a judgment of works when the assize of the great white throne and of Him that sits on it shall open. How solemnly, therefore, it reads: “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man accord­ing to their works!” (Revelation 21:13.)

Such seems to be the order as we gaze through the long and solemn perspective of the judgment scene; but if our readers shall put a question mark against many of our conclusions, we shall not be surprised. There is a massing of shad­ows and a concentration of mystery about the whole scene which invest it with unutterable awe. We are willing to leave the shadows unlifted and the mystery unsolved, if, “knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,” we may “persuade men.”

Endnotes:

1 Closing-Days of Christendom, Wale, p. 362.

2 “Covetous Babylon of wrath divine, By its worst crimes, has drained the full cup now.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . Her idols shall be shattered in the dust, Her proud towers, enemies of heaven, be hurled, Her wardens into flames and exile thrust.

Fair souls and friends of virtue shall the world Possess in peace; and we shall see it made All gold, and fully its old works displayed.”

Petrarch 1304-1374.