DAY OF JUDGMENT
DAY (THAT)
i. The details of the day are not clearly ■worked out by the Apostles. In their case, as in that of Jesus, there is the double expectation that both God and Jesus will be the Judge. In the Apostolic thought, however, the recognition of Jesus as Judge (assisted, as has already been pointed out, by the saints, 1 Co 6=) is very distinct. He is to sit upon the throne, and mankind is to stand before Him, and bow to Him, and be subject to Him. At the same time the correlation between His position and that of God is distinctly made (Ko 2"*). He is to be God's agent, and at ' the end ' is to give over the kingdom to the Father (1 Co 15=*).
5. In the Apocalypse there are two Judgment- days spoken of. The first, which is established at the appearance of Jesus, is confined to the worldly powers, and Satan is then bound and shut up in the abyss (Rev 20'''). Then follows the reign of Christ on earth for a thousand years, which is ushered in by the resurrection of the martyrs (20*"*). At the end of this period of one thousand years the great day of God (16") comes, in wliicli all those believer's who sun-ive and the members of the one thousand years' kingdom are carried up to heaven, and all the dead are raised to stand before the Judgment-seat of God (20'- "). Here again there must be a distinction drawn between the idea of the ascension from Sheol and the acqui- sition of the lx)dy of the resurrection. At this final Judgment the evi\ are sent to the lake of fire (21*), where tliey continue in endless misery. In this last Judgment it may be noticed also that one's future is determined by the records in the books of the Judge (20i=- ").
6. As in the case of the teaching of Jesus, the award at the Day of Judgment for the wicked is eternal condemnation, ■which is described in a variety of ways, chief among which are ' destruc- tion,' ' fire,' and ' death,' the general term for such misery being the anthropomorphic expression ' ■*vrath of God.' For believers there is, on the other hand, salvation which, in the resurrection of the body, marks the completion of that eternal life already begun in the earthly life of the believer through the presence of the Spirit in the believer's heart.
7. It is improbable that the Church of the NT times ever ceased to think of the Day of Judgment as a distinct point in time, and of the coming of Christ as a definite event of the future (Ac 24==, Ru 2'). See Paeousia. Such late books as Jude and
hatic as to His coming.
2 Peter are particularly eraph although the writer of 2Pi
r'eter is obviously per- plexed at the delay in the return of Jesus (2 P 3*). 8. It is at this point, however, that one realizes more clearly than ever the impossibility of treat- ing any one of the particular elements of the Christian eschatological Messianic hope apart from the others. The reason for this lies in the origin of the hope. In so far as it is not the outcome of the historical facts of Jesus' life, death, and resur- rection, it is the bequest of Judaism to the Chris- tian Church. As such, its component elements are really phases of one hope, and are so inextric- ably combmed as to make it almost impossible to separate them. The Parousia, the Day of Christ, the Day of Judgment, the resurrection of the dead, are all alike difterent a-spects of the same great event toward which the whole creation moves. They all embody the fundamental e\-
Eectation of early Christianity, that the Christ m ho ad been cruciffed would shortly return to cstalj- lish His Messianic kingdoni. In sucli an estab- lishment there was involved the ])unishmenl of all those who were the enemies of God and of His Christ, as ■well as the rewarding of those who were His loyal subjects. Its terrors were as far .is pos- sible from being figurative to the early Christians.
From the time of Pentecost onwards men were first warned of the approach of the Judgment ■which all Jews expected, and were then told how by faith in Jesus as Christ and Lord they might gain acquittal in that Judgment. It is further noteworthy that in all matters relating to the future condition of mankind and the method of escaping punishment and winning salvation at the Day of Judgment, all the Christian writers are essentially at one. Differences in emphasis and methods of presenta- tion should not be permitted to obscure this identity in elementals.
Such an expectation embodies both permanent and transitory elements. Those are transitory which depend upon an impossible cosmology and a literal monarchical conception of God's relation to the world. Those are permanent ■which em- body the immutable laws of the moral world and the facts of the historical Jesus (including His resurrection). To distinguish between these two groups of elements is not difficult for the historical student, and will result in a larger appreciation of the fundamental truth of an apocalyptically con- ceived Judgment-day. See also Eschatology.
Eschatologu ' (Die Predi.jl ' Ckristianitu). sperger (Das :