THE certainty of a general and final Day of Judgment has been accepted as a fundamental doctrine by the Church of God on earth in all ages. The doctrine, however, has not always received that dogmatic emphasis in belief and in public statement which its importance deserves. In consequence men have shaped their lives as if no such solemn event is to be anticipated. To-day it is safe to say that this great truth has little effect upon the outlook and practice of men in general, and both the world and Church have suffered in consequence.
The dictates of conscience in man, and the principle and practice of justice as recognised in the state, which is really a kind of national conscience, indicate a future Day of Judgment. Conscience acknowledges the existence and claims of moral law, and commands conformity to it while it condemns the breach of it. Shall fallen man recognise and exercise a higher order of justice than that which we are to attribute to the Eternal God? Surely not! In Romans the second chapter the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, shows that the witness of conscience is an intimation of future judgment.
From the known facts of life it is also reasonable to infer the certainty of judgment at the end of the world. It is admitted that in this present life, under the longsuffering of God, wicked men often prosper in their wickedness. They often die at the very height of their prosperity greatly honoured among men, and they leave their possessions to those coming after them. On the other hand godly men are often oppressed throughout life, traduced and dishonoured among men and, as in the case of the martyrs of by-gone days, they die as criminals and hand down to their descendants a name which has been publicly condemned. The greatest example of this is the case of Christ Himself, who was tried and condemned as a malefactor, while Barabas, a robber and a murderer, was set free. In a world governed by infinite wisdom, righteousness and justice it is quite impossible that these wrongs should remain for ever unrectified, and therefore we are quite prepared to learn that God hath appointed a Day in which He shall judge the world in righteousness.
But we are not left to the witness of conscience nor to the inference of reason alone for our belief in the coming of the Great Day. The testimony of Scripture on this point is frequent and explicit. In Acts xvii and 31 we are told that God hath already appointed such a Day and ordained the Judge; in ii Cor. v. and 10, that “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.” The reality and certainty of this event was so impressed upon the mind of the Apostle John that he speaks of it as if he actually saw the whole scene spread out before his vision, so that he was able to follow each incident as it occurred. The inspired description he gives us of what he saw is written in Rev. xx, from verse 11 to the end of the chapter, and is one of the most impressive portions of God’s Word, a portion which should not be neglected. Let us meditate upon it carefully, frequently and prayerfully, so that something of its tremendous significance may penetrate into our hearts and manifest itself in our lives. The quotation is a long one but we give it in full:—”And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon 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. 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. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” There are many other passages which could be appealed to in confirmation of the certainty and solemnity of the Day of Final Judgment. Concerning this most important matter Scripture leaves us in no doubt.
The Judge on this great and solemn occasion will be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God hath already ordained to this office. It is most fitting that He should act in this capacity. This supreme honour is but part of that glory which God purposed should follow His humiliation among men. It is but due to Him who humbled Himself and stood unjustly condemned before the bar of human judgment, that He should now sit upon the throne of Divine judgment, invested with absolute authority; and that men, great and small, should stand before Him. Great multitudes of men have sometimes been seen on earth, but nothing at all approaching this vast concourse of all peoples, nations and tongues, standing before God. And yet not one can be lost among the crowd; each will be as thoroughly self-conscious as if there were none other there but himself; as if he stood alone and separate; as if the whole transactions of that Great Day concerned none but himself alone. How the hearts of those that know the Judge and loved Him as their Redeemer, will rejoice in His pre-eminence! How the consciences of those who rejected Him will smite them with terrible forebodings of woe!
God’s eternal and infallible Word will be the standard of judgment—the rule by which all cases shall be tried. The Bible may be for the present, to a large extent, discredited among men; the Greek in his wisdom scorns it, the Jew in his prejudice perverts it. To the vast majority of men it is a sealed book, neglected, misrepresented and misunderstood. But on that Day the Bible will be brought to the forefront and publicly opened. It will expose the wisdom of the Greek as foolishness and the prejudice of the Jew as ignorance. But, oh, what tongue can describe the joy it will give to those who have loved their Bibles, who have often listened to the voice of their Saviour speaking to them out of the pages of His Own Word, whose hearts have sometimes burned within them as He spoke to them by the way, to see this longed for Day! The enemies of their beloved Book are silenced and ashamed; their faith and patience are vindicated, and the question of God’s faithfulness is for ever settled beyond dispute. Now the sanctions of the Gospel of Christ shall come to be actually realised and fully enforced, and he that believed shall, in very deed, be saved with an everlasting salvation, and he that believed not shall be damned with an everlasting damnation. The judgments of that Day and the sentences pronounced will convey a message of unutterable joy or sorrow to the breast for every person present. “Come, ye blessed!” “Depart, ye cursed!” It is quite impossible for us now to grasp the full significance of these pronouncements. These sentences will be the final word—those blessed will be eternally blessed; those cursed will be eternally cursed.
From the consideration of this solemn subject the lessons to be learned are many. Here we can only indicate some of them in a very general way. For the godless. Oh, that wicked men were wise and would consider their latter end! Here is a word for them, “Though hand join in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished.” (Prov. 11, 21.) For those who are burdened with the concerns of Christ’s cause on earth. “He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.” (Isa. 53, 11.) For those who fear God, “Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. . . For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (II. Cor. 4, 14.)
The time of Christ’s coming to judgment is hidden from us: the certainty of His coming is repeatedly and solemnly impressed upon us. It would be folly of the most inexcusable kind were we to allow the uncertainty of the date to blind us to the certainty and significance of the event. The lessons to be learned are to be learned now, for the judgment is of those things done in the body. We are writing the Book which shall witness for or against us NOW.