That a day is coming in which God will judge the world is one of the clearest statements of Scripture. Even the natural conscience, at times, proclaims this truth in the most disturbing way for careless sinners. The Lord Himself whom God has appointed to be Judge gives us a solemn account of the august transactions and unspeakably solemn decisions of that day. Before Him shall be gathered all nations and the work of separating the sheep from the goats will be undertaken by the unerring Judge. Never has there been a gathering like it—all mankind are there small and great—never shall there be a gathering like it again for a separation will take place that Day that all eternity will never see made up. The unspeakable solemnity of the whole scene as presented to us by the Judge that shall preside on the Great Day is overwhelming as one thinks of the decisions that will be announced. We believe that the teaching of Scripture indicates that this Day will be when He comes again. Devils have no doubt but such a day is appointed neither have they any doubt that the Lord Jesus is the appointed Judge. No word came from the demons in the possessed to indicate that they doubted these facts; on the other hand they accepted them as indisputable and fixed; their only complaint was “Why art thou come to torment us before the time?” It is only men who disbelieve the coming of this day yet God has given as a sign of its coming the greatest miracle wrought in time—the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In his famous address to the Athenians the Apostle solemnly reminds them that the times of ignorance were overlooked by God in the past. “But now [He] commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because He hath appointed a day on the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance to all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead” (Acts xvii. 30).
No words ever uttered in this world were so awful in their solemnity as those used by the Lord Jesus in reference to the fate of the finally impenitent. He who so often said to sinners “Come” will on the Great Day say to those on His left hand “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and His angels” (Matt. xxv. 41). And with these awful words ringing in their ears “these shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matt. xxv. 46). An attempt has been made by many to rid these words of their dread significance. God is too merciful to punish sinners for ever say men who would make us believe that they are more pitiful and compassionate than the Son of God. “Everlasting” means only they say to the end of the age. This trifling with solemn things has been foreseen by the Holy Spirit and it is significant that the word “everlasting” qualifying punishment and “eternal” qualifying life are exactly the same in the original viz. aiōnion. If the punishment lasts only to the end of the age so also does the life. But the Russellites and followers of Judge Rutherford, with all their quibbling, have never dared to rob the redeemed of the Lord of a heaven that has no end. Man’s natural heart rises up in rebellion against this doctrine and he does not hesitate to arraign the Judge of the whole earth and pass sentence on Him. Our natural feelings are easily played on here and the deniers of the doctrine find thousands to whom their unscriptural teaching makes a strong appeal. May our ears always be open to what the Lord Jesus taught and shut to all the teaching of men, however plausible and pleasant to our fallen nature it may be when it manifestly contradicts His teaching.