7.04. Final Judgment

Final Judgment The doctrine of the final judgment was, from the first, immediately connected with the resurrection of the body. Mankind “must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body” (2 Corinthians 5:10). The fathers founded their views of the day of doom upon the representations and imagery of Scripture. They believed that a general conflagration will immediately follow the last judgment, which some said will destroy the world; while others ascribed only a purifying agency to it. Augustine (City of God 20.16.24) holds that this world is to be changed, not destroyed, and is to be the “new earth” spoken of in the Apocalypse. Some, like Tertullian and the more rhetorical of the Greek fathers, enter into minute details; while others, like Augustine, endeavor to define dogmatically the facts couched in the figurative language of the Bible. In the Middle Ages, representations varied with the bent of the individual theologian. One popular opinion was that the judgment will be held in the valley of Jehoshaphat. Aquinas maintained that the last judgment will be mental, because the oral trial of each individual would require too much time. In the modern church, the course of thinking has been similar to that in the ancient and medieval. The creeds of the different Protestant denominations explicitly affirm a day of judgment at the end of the world. Individual speculations, as of old, vibrate between the extremes of materialism and idealism.

According to Scripture, there is a private judgment at death and a public judgment at the last day. The private judgment is proved by the following particulars. First, the Bible teaches that the human when it leaves the body meets God directly, as it never has before: “The dust shall return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). This implies self-consciousness in the immediate presence of God; and this implies self-knowledge in that presence: “Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12; cf. Psalms 139:1-6). But this self-consciousness and self-knowledge at death is a private individual judgment. Every man when he dies knows his own moral character-and knows it accurately. Consequently, at death every man either acquits or condemns himself. What St. Paul says is done in the public judgment of the last day is also done in the private judgment on the day of death: “The conscience bears witness, and the thoughts accuse or else excuse one another” (Romans 2:15). Consequently, the private judgment at death indicates the moral state of the soul: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).¹[Note: 1. WS: In this passage, krisis (κρίσις = judgment) is anarthrous. The writer does not say that the judgment immediately succeeds the death of the body, but that a judgment does.] Second, the private judgment at death and the public judgment at the last day coincide, because in the intermediate state there is no alteration of moral character and consequently no alteration of the sentence passed at death. We have presented the proof from Scripture that sheol or hades is a state of retribution and misery and paradise a state of reward and blessedness. The parable of Dives and Lazarus teaches that the impenitent spirit goes to hades at death and that hades is hell without the body. Consequently, the destiny of the impenitent is known and determined at death. The same parable teaches that the penitent spirit goes to paradise at death and that paradise is heaven without the body. Consequently, the destiny of the penitent is also known and determined at death. Penitence or impenitence at death is therefore the state of mind that settles the everlasting condition of the individual. Christ teaches that “to die in sin” is to be hopelessly lost (John 8:21; John 8:24). Every man who has the publican’s feeling when he dies and cries “God be merciful to me a sinner” is forgiven through the blood of Christ: “To this man, says the Lord, will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit” (Isaiah 66:2); “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Every man who at death is destitute of the publican’s feeling is unforgiven: “The proud he knows afar off” (Psalms 138:6); “the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty” (Isaiah 2:12). Every penitent pagan is saved, every impenitent nominal Christian is lost. (See supplement 7.4.1.) That there is a day of judgment and a public judgment is distinctly and often asserted by our Lord: “It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment” (Matthew 11:22; Matthew 11:24); “the men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with this generation” (12:41); 25:34-41 gives a detailed account of the day of judgment; “whosoever shall say, You fool, shall be in danger of hellfire” (5:22); “I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:39-40; John 6:44); “he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31); “the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16); “that day when I make up my jewels” (Malachi 3:17); “for all these things God will bring you into judgment” (Ecclesiastes 11:9); “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing” (12:14; Genesis 18:25; Deuteronomy 32:35; Job 21:30; Psalms 1:5-6; Psalms 58:11; Psalms 90:11; Psalms 94:1-2; Proverbs 16:25; Ecclesiastes 3:17; Isaiah 34:14; Isaiah 66:24; Daniel 7:9-10; Daniel 12:2; Jude 1:14-15). The biblical representations of the last judgment are as follows:

1. The preparation: Christ with the angelic host unexpectedly descends in bodily presence, and the throne of judgment is set (Matthew 25:31; Revelation 21:11): “This same Jesus that is taken up from you into heaven shall come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). His human nature is one reason why the Son of God is the judge (John 5:27).

2. The congregation of all men before the throne of judgment (Matthew 25:32; Romans 14:10; Revelation 21:12).

3. The separation of the evil from the good (Matthew 25:32-33): Plato (Republic 10.614) represents the judges as bidding “the just to ascend by the heavenly way on the right hand and the unjust to descend by the lower way on the left hand.”

4. The disclosure of character and conduct, so that the grounds of the judgment to be passed upon both classes may be clearly known (Matthew 25:34-46): “God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16); “all things are naked and opened (tetrachēliōena)²[Note: 2. τετραχηλιομένα] unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13); “the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (1 Corinthians 4:5). In particular, the temporal good which the evil have enjoyed in this life and the temporal evil which the good have experienced will be explained (see Augustine, City of God 20.2).

Respecting the last judgment, Augustine (City of God 20.14) says that there will not be an angel for each man to recite to him the deeds he has done, but we must understand by the phrase another book was opened that by divine power “everyone shall recall to memory all his own works, whether good or evil, and shall mentally survey them with a marvelous rapidity, so that this knowledge will either accuse or excuse, and thus all and each shall be simultaneously judged.” (See supplement 7.4.2.) S U P P L E M E N T S

7.4.1 (see p. 879). Bates (On Death, chap. 2) thus speaks of the private judgment at death: “Death is fearful in the apprehension of conscience, as it is the most sensible mark of God’s wrath which is heavier than death and a summons to give an account of all things done in this life to the righteous judge of the world: ‘It is appointed to all men once to die, and afterward the judgment’ (Hebrews 9:27). The penal fear is more wounding to the spirit than the natural and physical. When the awakened sinner presently expects the citation to appear before the tribunal above, where no excuses, no supplications, no privileges avail, where the cause of eternal life and death must be decided, and the awards of justice be immediately executed, O the convulsions and agonies of conscience in that hour! This made a heathen, a governor of a province, to tremble before a poor prisoner. When Paul ‘reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled’ (Acts 24:25).” Again Bates (Eternal Judgment, chap. 5) remarks that “the day of death is equivalent to the day of judgment; for immediately after it there is a final decision of men’s states forever. But the distinction that is made between men at death is private and particular and not sufficient for the honor of God’s government; hence at the last day all men that have lived in the several successions of ages shall appear, and justice have a solemn process and triumph before angels and men.” The private judgment is taught in the lines of Toplady’s hymn: When mine eyelids close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown, See thee on thy judgment throne, Rock of ages! cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee. The Scriptures teach it in declaring that at death Judas “went to his own place” (Acts 1:25) and knew that he did and also that Dives “died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments” (Luke 16:22-23).

Leighton (Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed) describes the private judgment: “It is certainly most congruous that there shall be a solemn judicial proceeding on entering and placing man in the afterstate. And that this be done not only in each particular apart, but most conspicuously in all together, so that the justice and mercy of God may not only be accomplished, but acknowledged and magnified, and that not only severally in the individual persons of men and angels, but universally, jointly, and manifestly in the view of all, as upon one theater. Each ungodly man shall not only read, whether he will or no, the justice of God in himself and his own condemnation, which all of them shall do before that time to their souls’ particular judgment; but they shall then see the same justice in all the rest of the condemned world.”

Pearson (On the Creed, art. 7) connects the private with the general judgment: “It is necessary that we should believe that an account must be given of all our actions; and not only so, but that this account will be exacted according to the rule of God’s revealed will, that ‘God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to the gospel’ (Romans 2:16). There is in every man not only a power to reflect, but a necessary reflection upon his actions; not only a voluntary remembrance, but also an irresistible judgment of his own conversation. Now if there were no other judge besides our own souls, we should be regardless of our own sentence and wholly unconcerned in our own condemnations. But if we were persuaded that these reflections of conscience are to be so many witnesses before the tribunal of heaven and that we are to carry in our own hearts a testimony either to absolve or condemn us, we must infallibly watch over that unquiet inmate and endeavor above all things for a good conscience.”

7.4.2 (see above). Belgic Confession 37 says that in the last day “the books, that is to say, the conscience, shall be opened, and the dead be judged according to what they shall have done.” Bates (Eternal Judgment, chap. 4) declares that “the conscience of every man shall be opened by the omniscience of God and give an accusing or excusing testimony of all things (Romans 2:15-16). For these acts of conscience, in the present life, have a final respect to God’s tribunal; and though the accounts are so vast there shall be an exact agreement between the books of God’s omniscience and of conscience in the day of judgment. Now, indeed, the conscience of man, though never so inquisitive and diligent in examining and revising his ways, is unable to take a just account of his sins. As one that would tell the first-appearing stars in the evening, before he can reckon them others appear and confound his memory with their number, so when conscience is seriously intent in reflecting upon itself, before it can reckon up the sins committed against one command, innumerable others appear. This made the psalmist, upon the survey of his actions, break forth in amazement and perplexity: ‘My iniquities are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart fails me’ (Psalms 40:12). But it will be one of the miracles of that day to enlarge the view of conscience to all their sins. Now, the records of conscience are often obliterated, and the sins written therein are forgotten; but then they shall appear in so clear an impression that the wicked shall be inexcusable to themselves, and conscience subscribes their condemnation. This information of conscience, at the last, will make the sinner speechless; for the book of accounts with divine justice was always in God’s own keeping, and whatever is recorded there was written with his own hand.

“Other witnesses, also, will appear to finish the process of that day. (1) Satan will then bring in a bloody charge against the wicked. This is intimated in that fearful imprecation, ‘Let Satan stand at his right hand; when he is judged let him be condemned’ (Psalms 109:6-7). He is now an active watchful spirit whose diligence is equal to his malice and by violent temptations draws men to sin. But then he will be their most bitter accuser, not from zeal for justice but pure malignity. (2) The wicked themselves will accuse one another. Then all that have been jointly engaged in the commission of sin will impeach each other. The inferior instruments will accuse their directors for their pernicious counsel, and the directors will accuse the instruments for their wicked compliance. (3) All the holy servants of God, who by their instructions, counsels, admonitions, examples, have endeavored to make the world better, will give a heavy testimony against them. Indeed, the very presence of the saints will upbraid the wicked for their resisting all the warning melting entreaties, all the grave and serious reproofs, all the tender, earnest expostulations, that were ineffectual by the hardness of their hearts.”