ALSO he who is fallen asleep in Jesus, is included in the Last Judgment, and is subject to it.
Shortly before His passion in Gethsemane, before He subjected Himself to the human judge and “suffered under Pontius Pilate,” Jesus has in vivid portrayal held up as before the eyes of His disciples how “all peoples shall be gathered before Him, and how He, the Son of man, shall make separation between them, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” And then, so Jesus went on to say, “the Son of man shall put the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left hand, and as King He shall say to those on His right hand: “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25, 34).
Thus all doubt or uncertainty is here excluded, and with the whole church on earth we, too, confess that Jesus “shall come again to judge the quick and the dead,” and such, without distinction, as well those who fell asleep unto life, as those who died away into the eternal death.
In touchingly beautiful language Article 37 of our Reformed Confession gives expression to this, when it says: “And then all men will personally appear before this great Judge, both men and women and children, that have been from the beginning of the world to the end thereof, being summoned by the voice of the arch- angel and by the sound of the trumpet of God. For all the dead shall be raised out of the earth, and their souls joined and united with their proper bodies, in which they formerly lived. As for those, who shall then be living, they shall not die as the others, but be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and from corruptible, become incorruptible. Then the books (that is to say the consciences) shall be opened, and the dead judged according to what they shall have done in this world, whether it be good or evil. Yea all men shall give an account of every idle word they have spoken, which the world only counts amusement and jest. And then the secrets and hypocricy of men shall be disclosed and laid open before all. And therefore the consideration of this judgment, is justly terrible, and dreadful to the wicked and ungodly, but most desirable and comfortable to the righteous and the elect; because then their full deliverance shall be perfected, and they shall receive the fruits of their labor and trouble, which they have borne; their innocence shall be known to all.”
This stands here in the fore, because in Holy Scripture God has caused the positiveness of this Last Judgment to be announced to us more definitely than anything else, and such more than once not in brief announcement, but circumstantially and in detail. Thus, not to mention more, wrote the holy apostle Paul in Rom. 2: Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds. To them who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. For there is no respect of persons with God.”
And this Last Judgment always occurs as an actual judgment in the high tribunal, with Christ as Judge, to pronounce judgment. For so it is written: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5, 10).
Even young children that have died in infancy are not excluded from this. Did we not confess with the Baptism of our children, that also “they are conceived and born in sin, and therefore subject to all miseries yea, to condemnation itself”?
They whoever yet speak of “the innocent little ones,” how do they reconcile this saying with the fact that also these little ones undergo death? Is not all death sprung from sin?
OF this therefore, that a Last Judgment comes, and that in that last judgment every one of us must appear before Christ, must every time again due mention be made, with all the emphasis that can be laid upon the word, in catechetical classes, in preaching, in exhortation and in meditation.
Especially in times like ours, which more and more swathe all judgment, and so also the Last Judgment, in haziness and dissolves it in vague, mystical generalities.
The tribunal on earth, so it is said, pronounces no more justice nor judgment of retribution, but sits as a college of guardians for the sake of him who went wrong, to improve him. Also as a college for the protection of society, to render transgressors harmless. Also as a medical society to dispose of the ill-born and half insane, for their good and the good of society.
Can it be wondered at, that also a Last Judgment is no more believed? No more believed among thoughtful multitudes. Naturally not among the deniers of Christ. And what is worse, also not among many Christians.
This was effected for them by the spiritualizing, which turned the Last Judgment into a giving of account in one’s own conscience, and in no case would longer tolerate an appearing before the judgment seat.
In part it was also effected for them by the Atonement itself. There would still be a summary judgment passed upon the lost, but the reconciled in Christ would in no case come any more into Judgment!
YET upon the fact itself of the Judgment depends our whole Confession.
If like the plant we live purely a natural life, there can be no mention of a judgment. When you cut out dead branches from a tree or otherwise prune it, no one calls it judgment. When Jesus said that the tree without fruit must be hewn down, it was metaphorical language. Is ours on the other hand besides natural, also a moral life, then from this directly follows responsibility and accountability. And accountability always presupposes a judge whom you owe an account. An account which runs out into nothing and becomes a mere show, except as approval or disapproval follows the given account.
So on the existence or non-existence of a judgment depends all our higher condition as man. On it depends the whole moral worldorder. On it depends the righteousness of God. By it stands or falls the Majesty of the Lord JEHOVAH, as He Whose right it is to command and therefore also to judge us.
So deeply has this indispensableness of judgment been engraven in our heart, that we ourselves constantly pass judgment upon each other’s doings and not-doings; that without judgment no family ever survived; that there is no people known without a court of justice; and that we continually pass judgment upon ourselves in the conscience. And this self-judgment in the conscience, what is this other than being judged in the conscience by our God.
Yet even on earth this particular and personal judgment is not enough. As soon as it concerns a word of slander or wrong deed of a more serious character and public notoriety, we are not satisfied, until by one in authority judgment is passed and publicly announced.
The moral worldorder, and the justice inseparably connected with it, are no private fads, but concern every one, concern the public conscience, concern the foundations of human society.
When judgment stumbles, sings the Psalmist, all foundations are overthrown. And when the guilty go out free, says he elsewhere, “all the foundations of the earth totter.”
THEREFORE we speak of a Last Judgment, thereby ourselves testifying that all sorts of other judgments precede it.
Surely, Jesus said: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” You are not seated as judge appointed by Divine authority. You lack the means, which the judge has at command to investigate guilt. If then you make it seem, as though you were judge, you presume upon what is not your own. And also, because another fell into sin, you, who by grace were kept, should not hypocritically exalt yourself above him. He who searches the heart, condemns you perchance more sternly than the man whom you would condemn. He who is clothed with humility, keeps himself far distant from all such haughty passing of judgment.
“For who art thou, O man, that judge another, for thou that judgest others, doest the same things, and we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things” (Rom. 2, 1, 2).
But with this reservation, human judgment conformable to duty is already of many sorts. Judgment of the father upon his family, of the housewife upon her servants, of employer upon employees. In like manner the judgment of public conscience upon public persons, even upon peoples and governments. And above all the judgment of the judge in authority, who sits in God’s seat, to maintain justice upon earth.
STILL all human judgment remains imperfect. It can never fully satisfy our thirst after justice. We know that a great many crimes are committed in secret, or in such crafty and cunning ways, that the human tribunal can bring no just retribution upon them.
Must then upon this broad level injustice forever go out free? Is it right that the man who steals a garment, goes to prison, and the moneywolf who steals goldmines, is overladen with demonstrations of honor?
And also, the human judge is fallible. Guilty are declared free, innocents are condemned, even sentenced and punished with death at the stake, or on the scaffold. Forget not your martyrs!
Must not this injustice be avenged? Must there be no reparation of the justice which the judge himself abandoned as a prey to craftiness or violated by blunder and neglect? Does not everything that is in you rage against every assertion, as though all this must eternally remain as it is? Does not the outraged conscience call upon the people’s sense of justice for a higher, for a better, for a Divine tribunal, which once shall make reparation for all the blunders and all the neglect of the human tribunal?
And if so, is there then to this cry of the human heart which can not be smothered ever another answer thinkable, than that once there comes the Last Judgment, the judgment of God Himself, and therein the judgment after the standard of an unimpeachable Right?
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