3. In the Apocalypse of John. — "We begin our study of the apostolic writings with the Apocalypse of John, not because it is the earliest of these writ- ings— in its present shape it cannot be dated before A.D. 95 — but because the description it gives of the events of the End is by far the most detailed, and because we are probably justified in regarding it as, in the main, representative of primitive Christian views. In his programme of eschatological events the writer follows closely his Jewish models. At His Parousia, Ciirist will smite the nations of the earth assembled against Him in battle, and pre- pare the way for His millennial reign (19"-20^). The close of this reign will see a last uprising of the powers of evil, ending in their utter and final overthrow (20""^"). Then will come the general resurrection and the Judgment (20'^"'^). The Judgment, which is universal in its scope, is con- ducted not by Christ but by God (20"). Men are judged ' according to their works,' and out of certain books, one being singled out by name as ' the Book of Life.' The books contain a record of the deeds, good and bad, of each individual : the Book of Life is the list of God's elect people. Ex- ceedingly brief is the account of the fate oi the re- firobate. ' Death and Hades were cast into the ake of fire • . . and if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.' Though the writer describes this as 'the second death,' it is clear that he is thinking not of annihilation but of an eternity of sufi'ering (14^'*- ^i). It must be admitted that the Book of Revelation does not everywhere maintain the high level of the Christian spirit. It comes to us from a time when the Church was passing through the same harrow- ing experiences as were the lot of the Jewish people in the days when apocalyptic had its birth. And in the one case as in the other persecution has resulted in an exacerbation of feeling and a narrowing of sympathy.
i. In St. Paul. — For St. Paul as for the Christian community in general the Last Judgment is a great and dread fact with which believer and unbeliever have equally to reckon. He knows the ten-or of the Lord (2 Co 5"). ' We must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad' (2 Co 51", Ro 23-16 1410^ 1 Co 3^3 45). In this and in
the majority of relevant passages it is Christ who sits as Judge. But that the point is not regarded as dogmatically fixed is shown by the fact that the Apostle can also speak of God as the Judge (Ro 06. 11 i4i0)_ What is his teaching with respect to the fate of the wicked ? The Book of Revelation gives us two pictures — one of the redeemed in Paradise, the other of devils and condemned souls in the lake of fire. Of the second picture there is not a single trace in the Pauline Epistles. The wicked simply disappear from the scene, the nature and term of their punishment being left shrouded in obscurity. By bringing together a number of scattered indications we may, however, arrive at a fairly certain notion of what the Apostle thinks regarding their fate. That he contemplates a universal restoration is an idea that maj' at once be put aside. Support has, indeed, been sought for it in certain statements of a general character : 'As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall aU be made alive,' ' God hath shut up all unto dis- obedience that he might have mercy upon all ' (1 Co 1522, Ro 1P2, Col 1'8, Eph V"). But such statements cannot be pressed in their letter against the multitude of passages that asjsert in unambigu- ous terms the final ruin of the ungodly (Ro 2^- ^^, Ph 318, 2 Th 19). They are but examples of the Apostle's sweeping and antithetical way of putting things. Quite decisive against the idea of restora- tion is the fact that nowhere do we find a single syllable that suggests future probation.
One point only is open for argument, whether the Apostle has in his mind annihilation or an eternity of sutlering. With regard to this, the words used in describing the fate of the wicked are not in themselves decisive. Of these words the two most important, both from the frequency of their occurrence and from their intrinsic signifi- cance, are 'death' (Odparos) and 'destruction' (dTTwXeta). Death is for St. Paul sin's specific penalty, its wages (Ro 5^^ 6^^- ^ 8"). What does the term connote? Not necessarily annihilation, since, according to current ideas, the dead descended into Hades to lead there a wretched phantasmal existence. We can take from it nothing more than this — the loss of all that gives to life its value, the loss of all that is signified by salvation. Not materially difl'erent is the connotation of the term 'destruction.' The wicked are brought to utter ruin, swept from the place of the living and the presence of God. But, if a study of terms leaves the question of annihilation or eternal sufiering an open one, the general tenor of the Apostle's thought points conclusively to the former alternative. Weight must be attached to the fact of an absence of any reference to a place of tor- ment. The tribulation and anguish of Ro 2" need refer to nothing beyond the experience of destruc- tion. On two things only does St. Paul lay stress — that the wicked have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God, and that they are cleared ott' the face of the world. Still more decisive is this other fact — that the universe he contemplates as the goal of redemption is one reconciled to God in all its parts. If the demonic powers are not ulti- mately reconciled, as in one passage he seems to indicate (Col V^), they are abolished (1 Co 152-»). God becomes all in all. St. Paul leaves us with the vision of a world that is without a devil and without a hell, without a shadow on its brightness or a discord in its harmony.