ii. In the teaching of the Apostles.— In the teaching of the Apostles the Day of Judgment has a position quite as central as m the teaching of Jesus. But even more important is it in what may be called their system of teaching. With them as with Jesus, the chief end of faith is the achievement of salvation, that is, eternal life ; but their thought is more formally concentrated on the events of the great day. St. Paul draws out the logical relations of these elements more elaborately than any of the other NT writers, but it is easy to see that there is no radical difference at this point between him and them. All alike held that there was no escaiiing the Judgment of God (Ro 2\ cf. He 9-', Gal 1«- 25-^-im-)-
1. The term 'day of judgment' does not occur in the Pauline teaching, and in fact only in 2 Peter and 1 John. The day is commonly denominated 'the judgment,' and even more frequently is re- ferred to in specific phra.ses as 'that day 'or 'the day' (1 Co 3"). With this must be identilied also the 'day of Christ,' although the term has a some- what wider connotation (see DAY OF Christ) (1 Co 1'* 55, 2 Co 1", Ph !«• i» 21''), or ' day of the Lord ' (1 Th 5=). In one or two instances also it is called ' the great day ' (Jude «, Rev 6"). The belief in the same great assize is to be seen lying behind the idea of condemnation {Kplfia) which is so fre- qtiently met with in the NT.
2. It is around this Day of Judgment, as one of the elements in the establishing of the Messianic era, that the 'judgment' of the Apostles continually circles. All of them refprred to it a« one of the things to be assumed .-is lielirvcd in l.y all Chris- tians (He 6=, Kplfui). It iiii'jlil M .111 strange to the heathen (Ac 17=i), l.ul ii h.l-, .m.' iif the ele- mentary expectations of all Jews and proselytes.
It was to come %\ithin the lifetime of men living during the first age, and its awards would be final for the eternity which then began. Its subjects were to be all mankind, as St. Paul elaborately argues in the opening chapters of Romans. They were to be both the living and the dead. This, of course, implies the bringing of the dead from Sheol, and therefore accounts for the exceptional expres- sions which speak of the ' resurrection of judgment ' ( Jn 5=", cf. Ac lO-'-, Rev 20'=- "). Such a resurrec- tion of the dead must be treated as something other than the acquisition of the body of the resurrection, which was to be a part of the great reward of the believer. In accordance with the apocalyptic literature, angels were also to be judged, and that, too, by the saints (1 Co 6--%
3< This universality of the Judgment lay at the bottom of much of the discussion concerning justi- fication by faith. The Christians believed that they, as well as others, were to stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ to give an account of the deeds done in the body. The conditions of ac-
3uittal at the Judgment were conceived by the erusalem CImrch as including participation in the blessings promised exclusively to Jews as sons of Abraham. In the case of the party of the circum- cision, at least, it was the belief of the Jerusalem Church that believing Jews and jjroselytes alone were to be acquitted in the Day of Judgment. The Pauline position, that any one who had accepted Jesus as Christ was to be acquitted, was exposed to certain misapprehensions. On the one hand, St. Paul insisted that it was not necessary for those who believed in Jesus as Christ to be subject to the Law as a statutory enactment ; on the otlier hand, he was aware that the Christian JifcM.is f;u enough from being in absolute conformii y w iili 1 lie will of God. How then could belie\ei> li<.|ie In lie ac- quitted? His reply is that they /.iimn they are to be acquitted because they have the Holy Spirit, the first instalment of the heritage of salvation. His answer to the consequent question why a man who no longer feared condemnation at the Judg- ment of God should be good, constitutes one of the most vital of his ethical teachings It amounts to this : Realize in conduct the moral possibilities of the regenerate self. His answer to the more particular question as to what should happen to erring Christians at the Judgment is equally pro- found. In 1 Co 31" he argues that the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ must always abide, but that the building which each believer erects upon this foundation may be worthless. His figure clearly teaches that the Christian is subject to the Judgment as truly as any one else, and that al- though he will be given the body of the resurrection and the other blessings of salvation, he will also sutler certain losses. At this point, therefore, there is to be seen the rudiments of a logical doctrine as to rewards and punishment which is far enough from the mechanical expectation of the apocalypses. And, further, it must be added that the early Church believed tliat it was possible even for those who, so far as could be judged by ordinary standards, had accepted Jesus as Christ, to fall away and be ultimately lost. Christians were always in danger of committing sins which at the Judgment would shut them out of the kingdom of God (Gal 5«, 1 Co 6"- ">■ ", Ro 13= 14=3). it js clear, therefore, from such teaching, that St. Paul moved over into the moral as distinct from the purely formal field. The Judgment-day is some- thing other than the time of registering the arbi- trary decrees of God, and becomes the time when the ultimate destinies of men are determined by their actual moral conditions, these conditions in- cluding, rather than being supplanted by, faith in Jesus.