This is a subject which is closely associated with the resurrection, in
certain aspects of it, the antagonism between good and evil, and the ultimate
destruction of the devil. A correct understanding of one will yield the same of
the others. It is a subject which has both a general and a specific aspect, and
we will investigate the former first.
The word
"judgment" is variously employed in the Scriptures; and it is
translated from several different Hebrew and Greek words. The meanings of these
words are, the power of discerning, of sifting matters
as to right and wrong; discretion; punishments; ruling on a throne; judicially
and officially deciding and decreeing in matters of law; sometimes the words
mean the commandments of God; and there is one of the words which stands for
throne and judgment seat. We will examine a few examples. When
Jeremiah was sent of the Lord to condemn the wickedness of
As it has been in the
past, so it will be in the future. God’s Judgments will be poured out upon the
world generally and, no doubt, specially upon some
obnoxious individuals, in the latter days of this dispensation, when He will
"bind the kings with chains, and the nobles with fetters of iron; to
execute the judgments written" (Ps. 149: 8, 9). This is the time
Jesus speaks of in the words, "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also
the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matt. 24: 37). Judgments in this sense
of the word have overtaken nations and people without any definite revelation
of the time or epoch wherein to look for them in advance. From a finite point
of view they seem to have depended upon circumstances as these would arise. For
instance, Abraham was told that four hundred years would elapse before his
descendants should enter the land of promise; and the reason given is that
"the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." God’s judgments
always waited till justice and mercy could no longer forbear; and when the
iniquity of the nations became full, as the Saviour said to the Jews,
"Fill ye up the measure," then the judgments
were poured out. In some cases they would seem to come from natural causes, as
in the case of the Romans punished by the Saracens; one nation was brought
against another by some complications arising between them. Without the aid of
Scripture, such occurrences are viewed only as "in the natural order of
events;" but why does "nature" so "order" is a
question which cannot be answered with God and the Bible left out.
THREE PRINCIPAL
PERIODS OF THE WORLD’S WEEK
Upon the principle of
the lesser being involved in the greater, the apostle Peter divides the world’s
week into three grand periods; first, the Antediluvian age; second, the Jewish
and Gentile times; and third, the millennium. These he speaks of as "the
world that then was," "the heavens and the earth which are now, and
the new heavens and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." At the end of
these there is a filling up of the measure of iniquity universally, and a
consequent pouring out of divine judgments--in addition to all the incidental
visitations upon cities, nations and individuals. A recognition of these facts
and truths will show that God’s hand is always at work in the affairs of men
and nations, using "natural means" to carry out his purposes, it is
true, but using them nevertheless. While allowing nations to act according
to their own volition, He has in His own mind the limit; so that when that is
reached He declares, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther;" and
so, like Abraham, we may be sure that "the God of the earth will do
right." Justice will be guarded by Him who alone is the judge of what
justice is, and who alone is to be satisfied with what is done.
DEGREES OF
RESPONSIBILITY
The degree of
responsibility has been of a special character with God’s chosen people, the
Jews, because He had delivered them from bondage and entered into covenant
relation with them, under a law specially imposed upon them. Hence He says,
"You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore will
I punish you for your iniquities" (Amos 3: 2). This high responsibility
arose from the contract or covenant entered into at Sinai (Ex. 24: 3-7). This
responsibility, however, only reached the affairs of national and natural life.
It was a responsibility which belonged to the covenant which "was added"
to one of a higher character which alone imposed responsibility to judgment beyond
the present life. Every Jew was responsible to the "added covenant"
(Gal. 3: 19), and "every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward" (Heb. 2: 2); but the "everlasting
covenant," which began in Eden and was more fully revealed in the
Abrahamic covenant, was of a higher character, imposing higher responsibilities
and consequent greater rewards for faithfulness. Since the Mosaic covenant was
temporal and temporary its rewards and punishments were limited to this life;
and since the Abrahamic covenant was an "everlasting covenant" (Heb.
All the children of
Israel were under the Mosaic covenant; but they were not all under the
Abrahamic, for the reason that the first was a matter of law only, imposed
unconditionally upon those born under it naturally, while the second was one of
conditions predicated upon the one faith, reaching beyond this life and
dependent upon being "born again" and becoming "new
creatures," mentally, morally and relatively. The subjects of this
"everlasting covenant" were therefore under the two covenants--the
one which was a "schoolmaster" to lead to the other, and that one
which the schoolmaster led to; the former has Moses for its head, the latter
has Christ. There was no special ceremony under the Mosaic covenant attending
the passing of a person from responsibility to the law only, to that of the
Abrahamic covenant. The former brought its subjects "nigh to God" as
compared with the other nations who were "far off" (Eph. 2: 13) and
they were thereby constituted His people and were commanded to worship Him,
offering prayers and singing praises for His marvelous works. This placed them
in such a relation to God as imposed obligations upon them to accept the
gospel, the Abrahamic or the "everlasting covenant" as soon as the
"schoolmaster" opened their eyes to see it; and it would seem that
this enlightenment only was what transferred them to the higher responsibility.
Hence when Jesus "came to His own" He could make a claim of them that
could not apply to those who had not been brought into the covenant obligations
which made the Jews "nigh." To them, therefore, He says, "He
that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him; the
words that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day"--John
FALSE NOTIONS
"The day of
judgment" is a phrase which, with most people, means "the end of the
world," when it is supposed that every human being will be brought before
the judgment seat of Christ. Even from the popular point of view, this is very
inconsistent; for if the good are separated from the bad at death, and one is
sent to heaven and the other to hell, what is the judgment for? As Tyndall
said, "If the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case
as the angels be. And then what cause is there for the resurrection?" And
we might add, what cause is there for the judgment? The law upon which the judgment
seat of Christ is based is the gospel. This judgment must not be confounded
with the judgments to come upon the people of the world at large, in whose case
there is nothing to show that there will be a formal judgment seat. They will
be dealt with as cities and nations have in the past. "All judgment having
been committed to the Son," Jesus will be the executor of God’s will in
all the judgments, whether it be in pouring out vengeance, judicially declaring
the rewards and punishments of his household, or ruling according to judgment
and justice in his kingdom. These different judgments must be kept distinct.
The largest part of the Adamic race will have suffered the judgments of God and
have gone down to the grave to come up no more, as we have seen in a previous
chapter; but the living nations that will have filled up the measure of their
iniquity at the time of Christ’s return will be the subjects of divine
vengeance, and all who will not yield to the "Son, when his wrath is
kindled but a little," will be "dashed in pieces like a potter’s
vessel" (Ps. 2: 9-11); while those who will submit to the King of all the
earth will be spared to be the first mortal subjects of the kingdom of God.
THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF
CHRIST
There is to be
"the judgment seat of Christ," at which "the law of the spirit
of life" will be the criterion. This is entirely a different judgment from
those we have been reviewing. It is not for all the
world; but for those only who have "works" good or bad to be judged,
"works" which have been done during a probationary life in which the
question involved is the reward of eternal life, or the penalty of the
"second death." The Greek word used for this judgment is different
from those employed for the judgments we have considered. It is not krima or
krisis, but it is bema. It occurs twelve times in the New
Testament. In Acts 7: 5 we have bema podus, meaning foot-step. In Acts
12: 21 it is rendered "throne"-- "Herod * * * sat upon his throne
and made an oration." In the other ten cases it is rendered
"judgment" and stands for a judgment seat, an institution for
formally trying cases according to established law.
Matt. 27: 19--"And
when he (Pilate) was set down on the judgment seat," etc.
John 19: 13--the same
as the foregoing.
Acts
Acts 18:
16--"Drove them from the judgment seat."
Verse 17--"And
beat him before the judgment seat."
Chap. 25:
6--"Sitting on the judgment seat."
Verse 11--"I stand
at Caesar’s judgment seat."
Verse
17--"On the morrow I sat on the judgment seat."
These passages clearly
show the specific meaning of bema, that it applies only to what in our
days is called a court of trial. The other two occurrences of the word are as
follows:
II. Cor. 5: 10--"For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one
may receive the things in body, according to that he hath done, whether good or
bad."
Rom.
The difference between
this "judgment" and the visitation of "judgments" upon
persons and nations who have "filled up their measure of iniquity,"
and who are not on probation under the law which is to be the criterion for
this "judgment seat of Christ," may be illustrated by the customs of
civilized nations. When barbarians of uncivilized parts of the earth offend a
civilized nation, by some cruelty or depredations, the "judgment" is
manifested in the arbitrary use of the sword. Punishment is meted out, either
in the destruction of the barbarians, or in such a severe visitation of
vengeance as will be deemed sufficient intimidation against a recurrence of the
offense. The offenders are not formally brought before the "judgment
seat" of the civilized nation, for the simple reason that its law is not a
criterion in such a case. But with its subjects, who are under, and thereby
responsible to, civil law, in case of offense, there is a formal "trial at
the bar," or to use the Scripture term, "the judgment seat."
The bema, or
judgment seat of Christ, may be likened to a judge deciding the merits of
contestants in a race. He watches their conduct carefully, and when, after the
race is over, they appear before him, he decides who of those under the law of
the race course have run lawfully, and who have run unlawfully. The latter he
rejects and they are driven from the judgment seat for punishment, while the
former are rewarded according to the degrees of merit. Onlookers, or the world
at large, who never entered the race, and who therefore never passed under the
law of merit or demerit within the sphere of this institution, have no
standing, either for good or for bad, before this "judgment seat."
Now, to all who are running
the race for eternal life, the Apostle Paul says, "Wherefore seeing we also
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside the
weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of
God."--Heb. 12: 1, 2.
SELECTION UPON AN
INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL BASIS
The world of mankind
having forsaken the ways of God, and, like Cain, become as "fugitives and
vagabonds" under the curse of God, the plan of salvation, which reflected
divine righteousness and love, could reach only comparatively few of the
fallen, wicked mass. The faculties of the race having become debased, and the
plan of salvation having been adapted to reach the minds and hearts of such
only as could and would respond, humbly, intellectually and morally, "from
the heart," it was of necessity a question of "taking out of
the nations a people for his (Jehovah’s) name"-- Acts 15: 14. In the
Christian dispensation this "taking out" is effected by belief of the
gospel and baptism into Christ. Those who comply with his law of
"adoption" become "children of God," "new
creatures," "servants," "virgins,"
"saints"--all names which distinguish them from the "world"
from which they have been "taken out." They enter upon a new life,
under new conditions, the moment they are symbolically "born again,"
when they are "born of (out of) water." To these Jesus says, "If
ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth
you" (John
Now it is this
"judgment seat" (bema) that is spoken of in Rom.
THEORIES TOO BROAD
AND TOO NARROW
There are two classes
whose theories stand in the way of a scriptural understanding of the doctrine
of resurrection and judgment. One class, and by far the larger, the popular
class, regards the doctrine as of universal application, and claims that in the
"last day," which they call the "end of the world," all the
dead will be raised to judgment and the final destinies of all the sons and
daughters of Adam will be declared, the wicked being consigned to a hell of
eternal torture, and the righteous to a heaven of eternal happiness. The other
class believes that only the good will be raised, and that their judgment is
only to award them according to degrees of merit. Included in this class are
some who believe that only the righteous will be raised at the coming of
Christ, and that the wicked will be raised at the end of the millennium. In
order to rightly divide the word of truth in relation to these theories, it
will be necessary to carefully consider
THE BASIS OF THE
RESURRECTION AND JUDGMENT
From the fall of man in
Eden, by which he passed under "the law of sin and death," whose
sentence was, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," until
Christ had triumphed over death and the grave by perfect obedience to "the
law of the spirit of life," the doctrine of resurrection and judgment was
an unsolved problem, and made dependent upon Christ. "For since by man
came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead" (
Since it is true that
the everlasting covenant could not come into full force until it had been
ratified by the shedding "of the blood of the everlasting covenant"
(Heb. 13: 20), and since the everlasting covenant, and the law of the spirit of
life, and the gospel are all one and the same thing, it follows that the
realization of the plan of redemption, expressed in these different terms,
depended upon Christ’s successful performance of his mission--his obedience
through a life of probation and his voluntary sacrificial death, which would
insure his resurrection by the Father. Jesus would thus become the resurrection
(anastasis) and the life (John
Now in the gospel there
are first principles involving resurrection, judgment, eternal life, and
inheritance in the
TWO MODES OF DIVINE
PROCEDURE
There are always two
modes of Divine procedure; one is governed by a revealed and fixed law, the
other is arbitrary, incidental and exceptional. Revealed law comprises all that
God has decreed and declared to be the rule of action in the different
dispensations of the world. That part of it which is directly related to the
subject in hand is the law of faith and obedience, which might be termed an
intellectual and moral law, which is the law of the gospel. The other mode of
Divine procedure is according as the right, the power, and the prerogative of
the Creator may see fit to do at all times with His creatures, every thing so
done being necessarily right because God’s arbitrary will as seen in action, in
any and all cases, is the ultimate standard of right, since, by reason of His
attributes, He can do nothing but what is right.
TWO MODES
ILLUSTRATED
To illustrate the two
modes of Divine procedure, we may observe that it is a rule of the moral and
intellectual law, which is the gospel, that natural or Adamic death will not be
suspended or neutralized in the children of God till a set time, namely, the
time of the "judgment of the quick and the dead;" and God has decreed
that He will Himself observe and act according to his rule of the law He has
enacted. Nevertheless He has made two exceptions to this rule in the cases of
Enoch and Elijah. It is also a rule of divine procedure to allow men to live
this natural life without any interference, except from disease, old age, or
accident; but by His arbitrary right God has many times interposed by that mode
which we have termed exceptional and incidental, an example of which will be
seen in the sudden infliction of death upon Ananias and Sapphira. These
exceptions are variations from the rule, and this is what we therefore term
that mode of divine procedure which is arbitrary, incidental, and exceptional.
It is necessary to
distinguish between these two modes in order to understand how God could raise
some to life in past ages and yet predicate the resurrection upon His
Son being an "Holy One" as the reason why
"his soul would not be left in Hades." All such cases of
resurrection must be distinguished from and kept outside of that law which has
decreed that "since by man came death, by man was also to come the
resurrection of the dead."
THE KEY OF HADES AND
OF DEATH
Christ’s emergence from
the grave (his anastasis or standing again in life) and his receiving
eternal life, depended upon his "holiness" as an intellectual and
moral power wherewith to solve the problem of resurrection, or whereby the
"Key of Hades and of death" would be formed--a key that would fit the
lock hitherto never fitted since the day the door was closed by that
"key" represented in the words "Dust thou art and unto dust
shalt thou return;" "By man came death." It was this moral and
intellectual power, that of belief in and perfect obedience to "the law of
the spirit of life," that Jesus meant when he said, "I have power to
lay down my life and I have power to take it again." This
"power" to lay down his life did not mean suicidal power in the
physical sense; neither did the "power" to take it again mean
physical or dynamic power; for in this respect Jesus was as powerless to raise
himself from the dead as is any other dead person. "God raised Jesus of
Nazareth from the dead," but he did so because Jesus had obtained the
power intellectually and morally which rendered the exercise of the Father’s
miraculous power consistent with his own law upon which resurrection "by
man" was predicated. This was what constituted Jesus "The
resurrection and the life."
In proof of the
principle laid down that the resurrection and the judgment was an
unsolved problem till Jesus solved it by his resurrection, we have only to
carefully examine the meaning of a few testimonies already alluded to, but
which I will here place more fully before the reader:
John 11: 25--Jesus
saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in
(into) me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
Acts
I. Cor.15:21--For since
by man came death; by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
Heb. 13: 20--Now the
God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make
you perfect, etc.
Rev. 1: 18--I am he
that liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive for ever more, Amen; and have
the key of hell (hades) and of death.
Now the first passage
must mean that Jesus is the resurrection according to a plan and a law
which did not operate in the incidental cases of resurrection which had taken
place before his time.
The second passage
predicated the resurrection of Christ upon the "impossibility of his being
holden of death" on account his being a "holy one," which was
the reason why "his soul was not left in hades," implying that
if he had not been a "holy one" his soul would have been "left
in hades," and therefore the resurrection would have remained an
unsolved problem.
The third passage
ignores all cases of resurrection previous to Christ’s, and must refer to the
resurrection within the scope of "The law of the spirit of life in
Christ Jesus;" otherwise the words, "By man came also the
resurrection of the dead," would not be true.
The fourth passage
declares that Jesus was brought again from the dead through the blood of the
everlasting covenant; and this implies that had he not voluntarily and
obediently offered the blood of the everlasting covenant there would have been
a lack of that upon which his resurrection was based, and in that case
"his soul" would have been "left in hades," and, again, the
resurrection would have remained an unsolved problem.
The fifth passage shows
that the resurrection depended upon a "key of hades," and that
key was Christ’s "holiness" under "The law of the spirit of
life," and that was the key which gave Jesus the "power" to
"take up his life again" after having laid it--the same life--down;
and that is the key that will open hades for all who come within the scope of
"The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus" as declared in the
words, "And if Christ be not raised * * * then they also who have fallen
asleep in Christ have perished" --I. Cor. 15: 17, 18.
Now here we have a line
distinctly drawn between those who will be in the resurrection and amenable to
the judgment seat according to the law of faith and obedience, which governs
the divine procedure with all who enter upon probation, and those who are not
on probation. The federal head of the first is Christ; the federal head of the
second is Adam. God’s dealings with the first are according to a revealed law
of probation, judgment, rewards and punishments; His dealings with the second
are first through the "powers that be," second by an arbitrary,
incidental and exceptional interposition. "The powers that be are ordained
of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance
of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers
are not a terror to good works but to the evil" (
Since God has in the
past dealt with some arbitrarily, incidentally and exceptionally, He,
doubtless, will do so in the future, His intention to do so having been clearly
declared in some particulars, such, for instance, as the visitations upon the
nations which are to besiege Jerusalem; and His special visitations may in some
cases be by resurrection and subsequent punishment, in all of which "The
God of the earth will do right," His arbitrary action necessarily being
right.
PRESENT MEANS OF
COMING WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE
RESURRECTION AND
JUDGMENT
The means of coming
within the scope of the law of resurrection is in the plan of
"adoption" to "sonship," "reconciliation,"
"atonement," "citizenship," which is in Christ and not in
Adam. The law of the spirit of life "is a court," as it were, in
which the sinful, figuratively called "naked" children of Adam have
no more standing, no more identity, than has a minor in a court of law. "A
minor is not known in court," so Adamites are not known in the court of
the "law of the spirit of life" or the gospel. That which will cause
names to be enrolled in heaven, and consequent cognizance of life as
probationary for a second life or a second death is induction into Christ who
is the resurrection. The "form of doctrine" which God has provided
whereby we may become related to the law of resurrection is a form analagous to
death, burial and resurrection. Hence the Apostle Paul earnestly appeals to us
in the words, "Know ye not that so many of you as
were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are
buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his
death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection"--Rom. 6: 3-5.
Previous to the making of the one offering, provision was made for covenant
relation with God by means of typical sacrifices. The covenant was made
"firm over dead victims," whose blood had been shed sacrificially.
But since the death of Christ, the covenant sacrifice, baptism is the
"form of doctrine" which inducts "into the name of the Father,
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," "the only name given under
heaven whereby we must be saved" which is the name of Jesus Christ, who
was a manifestation of the Father by the Spirit in the Son.
Since the result of the
probation of all who come into covenant relationship with God is not declared
before the time of the "judgment of the quick and the dead," the
resurrection of the faithful and the unfaithful probationers is a necessity, as
well as the "gathering together unto him," Christ (II. Thes. 2: 1), of those who "are alive and remain unto
the coming of the Lord" (I. Cor. 15: 51; I. Thes. 4: 14). That this
resurrection is confined to those who have been of the household of God, on
probation, will be seen by the parables of our Lord, where he represents them
as "virgins" wise and foolish; "servants" faithful and
unfaithful; "fish" in the gospel net, good and bad, etc. It is these
two classes the apostles write to in their letters, not to the world at large;
but to the Ecclesias (called-out ones) in
RESURRECTION NOT
UNIVERSAL
Now this discrimination
will enable us to harmonize many apparently conflicting passages of Scripture,
some emphatically declaring that a large part of the human family will never be
raised; others declaring that all will be raised. It is only by an observance
of the word "all" and its limitation to the law governing those it
includes that the difficulty can be removed, and the popular error of universal
resurrection corrected. Any interpretation which does not harmonize the general
teachings of the Scriptures must be faulty; for He who inspired the Scriptures
is a God of law and harmony to perfection.
The testimonies relied
upon to prove universal resurrection are the following:
Luke 20: 37--Now that
the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob for He is not the God
of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him.
John 5: 28--Marvel not
at this; for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves
shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation.
I. Cor.
II. Cor. 5: 10--For we
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive
the things in body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Rev. 20: 12--And I saw
the dead small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and
another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged
out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works,
and the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell (hades) delivered
up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to
their works.
In these passages
emphasis is put upon the words "all live unto him," "all that
are in the graves," "we must all appear," "in Christ shall
all be made alive," and "the dead, small and great."
If the word
"all" here pertains to the class we have defined as under the law of the
resurrection which is governed by that mode of Divine procedure which is
based upon intellectual and moral law, wherein the subjects are on probation,
then the word "all" can be taken as absolute in that relation, and
the passages will not contradict many others which speak of a large part of the
human race who will not be raised. Following are some of the passages which so
declare:
SOME WHO WILL NOT BE
RAISED
Nevertheless, man being
in honor, abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. * * * Like sheep,
they are laid in the grave: death shall feed on them; and the upright shall
have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the
grave from their dwelling.
But God will redeem my
soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive
O Lord, our God, other
lords [rulers] beside thee have had dominion over us:
but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall
not live: they are deceased, they shall not rise; therefore hast
thou visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish.
Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake,
and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the
earth shall cast out the dead--Isa. 26: 14, 19.
In their heat I will
make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and
sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, saith the Lord of hosts.
And I will make drunk
her princes, and her wise men, her captains and her rulers, and her mighty men:
and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake, saith the King,
whose name is the Lord of hosts.--Jer. 51: 39, 57.
For as many as have
sinned without law shall perish without law; and as many as have sinned
in the law shall be judged by the law.--Rom. 2: 12.
These passages need no
comment. All the reader can do is believe them: for
they cannot be "interpreted" to mean anything but what they say. They
show that those they speak of go down to hell or hades, or the
grave, to come up no more. The abnormal increase of the children of Adam’s race
is the result of the curse which came by man’s fall, as will be seen by the
words, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception" (Gen.
3: 16). The sentence passed upon all those in Adam, as the federal head of the
race, was, "Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return;" of which
the Apostle Paul says, "And so death passed upon all men" (Rom.
MORAL AND
INTELLECTUAL TESTS IN ADAM AND CHRIST
Since
it was by a moral and intellectual test and a failure under that test that man
brought upon himself death and the grave, so it was decreed that resurrection
should be based upon a moral and intellectual test in which there should be
success. Adam the first is the federal
head of all who are in him, and return to the dust in him; but Christ is the
federal head of all who are in him, die in him, and return to the dust in him.
And since he has established, ratified, and brought into force the law of
resurrection in himself all who are in him are thereby in the
resurrection or anastasis by reason of his having become "the
resurrection and the life." Hence the words, "For as in Adam all die;
even so in Christ shall all be made alive." The "all" in
each case is qualified by the "in;" for "in Adam" men are
not "in Christ," these being terms expressive of federal
relationship; and since Adam’s legacy is death and dust, without resurrection,
no one can be the subject of the resurrection which came "by
man," even Christ, unless a change of relationship has taken place. The
line is therefore drawn between "the law of sin and death," on the
one hand, and "the law of the spirit of life," on the other, leaving
any case of resurrection that might take place in the future as outside of this
in the sphere of Divine prerogative, but assured, however, by the testimonies
given that such cases will be small exceptions to those wherein the largest
part of the "multiplied conception" will like "sheep be laid in
the grave, and death shall feed on them;" and of whom it will be true in
the future as it was when the prophet Isaiah said: "They are dead, they
shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise; therefore hast thou
visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish."
By properly drawing the
lines of divine law, therefore, the seeming conflicting passages are found to
be in perfect harmony, every testimony fitting its place. But the blessed
thought for us is that God has sent His Son to be the resurrection and that He
has provided a means whereby we can have the privilege of reconciliation with
Him and enter upon probation in which, if we continue faithful to the end,
there is not only resurrection, or anastasis, but the life, the
"power of an endless life." With such a privilege there is great
responsibility, because to bear the Yahweh name is to be identified with
Yahweh, and that great and glorious name will be honored by us according as we
are faithful or unfaithful. Those who continue faithful to the end of their
probationary career will finally triumph over death and gloriously shout:
"O
Death where is thy sting?
O Grave
where is thy victory?"
Thanks be to God who
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
THE THEORY THAT IS
TOO NARROW
The other class of
errorists are those who limit resurrection to the righteous only, including
those who believe that only the righteous of the "called-out ones"
will be raised at the coming of Christ; and that they will emerge from the
grave immortal; but that the unfaithful of the "called-out ones" will
be raised at the end of the thousand year’s reign of Christ, for punishment. To
a large extent, scripture evidence will apply alike to these shades of
difference. They start with the assumed premise that the righteous emerge from
the grave immortal, and consequently the judgment of these cannot be to declare
them worthy or unworthy of immortality; therefore it must be limited to the
dispensation of rewards according to degrees of merit only.
The following
testimonies clearly show that the judgment of God’s household is for the
separation of the good from the bad; and that, therefore, they must necessarily
all appear for judgment together; also that immortality will be bestowed upon
the approved after judgment and that, therefore, they will not emerge from the
grave immortal:
Dan. 12: 2--And many of
them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
John 5: 28--The hour
is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall
come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life and they
that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
Rom. 2: 6-16--God will
render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance
in well doing seek for glory, honor and immortality, eternal life; but unto
them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, indignation and wrath * *
* in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according
to my gospel.
I. Cor. 3: 13-15--Every
man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it of what
sort it is, etc.
Rom. 8: 11--But if the
spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His
Spirit that dwelleth in you.
II. Cor. 5: 10--For we
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive
the things in body according to that he hath done, whether good or bad.
The first passage says
that both good and bad will awake "at that time," a phrase which
cannot mean two times separated by a thousand years. One class come forth "to
everlasting life" and the other to "shame" etc., which shows
that judgment intervenes between the coming forth and the rewarding of one
class and the punishing of the other.
Since the passage in
John is substantially the same, the same remarks apply. The passage in Romans
declares that eternal life is rendered to the well-doers and wrath to the
disobedient "in the day when God will judge," etc.
In I. Cor. 3, those who
are brought into the truth, and therefore built upon the foundation, which is
Christ, will be as gold, silver, and precious stones, on the one hand; and as
hay, wood and stubble on the other. These are to be tried as by fire in "the
day" that is to "declare every man’s work of what sort it
is."
II. Cor. 5 shows that
all who appear before the judgment seat of Christ are
to receive good or bad, according to their works. The
"good" must be eternal life in contrast with the "bad,"
eternal death; for these terms could not be applied to degrees of reward for
the good only. All that the faithful will receive will be "good," and
the degrees might be expressed by good, better and best.
The passage in Rom. 8
proves that the good will first appear in "mortal
bodies," and that these will be "quickened." This gives no
place, therefore, to the theory of "immortal emergence from the
grave."
The word
"resurrection" comes from the Greek word anastasis, which
means "a standing again." It is sometimes used for standing again in
mortal life; it also applies to that state to which the righteous attain in the
future life. This is its meaning in Luke
The theory of immortal
emergence is based upon a misunderstanding of I. Cor. 15: 42--"So also is
the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a
spiritual body." The word "raised" here must not be confined to raising out of the grave only. The analogy employed by the
apostle, that of raising grain, must be kept in mind, and the word
"raised" allowed sufficient scope to comprise the entire process,
when those exalted to the glorious resurrection state will have been
"raised spiritual bodies," a process which allows for the fulfillment
of other Scriptures, which clearly show a judgment between the time of
emergence from the grave and the immortalization of the faithful. Let all,
therefore, who put on the great and fearful name of Yahweh realize the
responsibility devolving upon them in bearing that name without reproach throughout
a diligent and faithful probation, and then they may feel assured that their
appearing before the judgment seat of Christ will be to receive the approbation
of a just and merciful Judge, who to all will exclaim, "Well done, thou
good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."