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| The Passages in Which the Saviour Declares that There Shall Be a Divine Judgment in the End of the World.
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Chapter 5.—The Passages in Which
the Saviour Declares that There Shall Be a Divine Judgment in the
End of the World.
The Saviour Himself, while
reproving the cities in which He had done great works, but which
had not believed, and while setting them in unfavorable comparison
with foreign cities, says, “But I say unto you, It shall be more
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for
you.”1323
And a
little after He says, “Verily, I say unto you, It shall be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for
thee.”1324
Here He
most plainly predicts that a day of judgment is to come. And in
another place He says, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment
with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented
at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is
here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with
this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the
utter
most parts of the earth to hear the words of Solomon;
and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.”1325
Two things we learn from this
passage, that a judgment is to take place, and that it is to take
place at the resurrection of the dead. For when He spoke of the
Ninevites and the queen of the south, He certainly spoke of dead
persons, and yet He said that they should rise up in the day of
judgment. He did not say, “They shall condemn,” as if they
themselves were to be the judges, but because, in comparison with
them, the others shall be justly condemned.
Again, in another passage, in which
He was speaking of the present intermingling and future separation
of the good and bad,—the separation which shall be made in the
day of judgment,—He adduced a comparison drawn from the sown
wheat and the tares sown among them, and gave this explanation of
it to His disciples: “He that soweth the good seed is the Son
of man,”1326
etc.
Here, indeed, He did not name the judgment or the day of judgment,
but indicated it much more clearly by describing the circumstances,
and foretold that it should take place in the end of the
world.
In like manner He says to His
disciples, “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed
me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the
throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging
the twelve tribes of Israel.”1327
Here we learn that Jesus shall
judge with His disciples. And therefore He said elsewhere to the
Jews, “If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons
cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.”1328
Neither
ought we to suppose that only twelve men shall judge along with
Him, though He says that they shall sit upon twelve thrones; for by
the number twelve is signified the completeness of the multitude of
those who shall judge. For the two parts of the number seven
(which commonly symbolizes totality), that is to say four and
three, multiplied into one another, give twelve. For four times
three, or three times four, are twelve. There are other meanings,
too, in this number twelve. Were not this the right
interpretation of the twelve thrones, then since we read that
Matthias was ordained an apostle in the room of Judas the traitor,
the Apostle Paul, though he labored more than them all,1329
should
have no throne of judgment; but he unmistakeably considers himself
to be included in the number of the judges when he says, “Know ye
not that we shall judge angels?”1330
The same rule is to be observed
in applying the number twelve to those who are to be judged. For
though it was said, “judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” the
tribe of Levi, which is the thirteenth, shall not on this account
be exempt from judgment, neither shall judgment be passed only on
Israel and not on the other nations. And by the words “in the
regeneration,” He certainly meant the resurrection of the dead to
be understood; for our flesh shall be regenerated by incorruption,
as our soul is regenerated by faith.
Many passages I omit, because,
though they seem to refer to the last judgment, yet on a closer
examination they are found to be ambiguous, or to allude rather to
some other event,—whether to that coming of the Saviour which
continually occurs in His Church, that is, in His members, in which
comes little by little, and piece by piece, since the whole Church
is His body, or to the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem. For
when He speaks even of this, He often uses language which is
applicable to the end of the world and that last and great day of
judgment, so that these two events cannot be distinguished unless
all the corresponding passages bearing on the subject in the three
evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are compared with one
another,—for some things are put more obscurely by one evangelist
and more plainly by another,—so that it becomes apparent what
things are meant to be referred to one event. It is this which I
have been at pains to do in a letter which I wrote to Hesychius of
blessed memory, bishop of Salon, and entitled, “Of the End of the
World.”1331
I shall now cite from the Gospel
according to Matthew the passage which speaks of the separation of
the good from the wicked by the most efficacious and final judgment
of Christ: “When the Son of man,” he says, “shall come in
His glory, . . . then shall He say also unto them on His left hand,
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels.”1332
Then He in like manner recounts
to the wicked the things they had not done, but which He had said
those on the right hand had done. And when they ask when they had
seen Him in need of these things, He replies that, inasmuch as they
had not done it to the least of His brethren, they had not done it
unto Him, and concludes His address in the words, “And these
shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into
life eternal.” Moreover, the evangelist John most
distinctly states that He had predicted that the judgment should be
at the resurrection of the dead. For after saying, “The Father
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father:
he that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath
sent Him;” He immediately adds, “Verily, verily, I say unto
you, He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is
passed from death to life.”1333
Here He said that believers on
Him should not come into judgment. How, then, shall they be
separated from the wicked by judgment, and be set at His right
hand, unless judgment be in this passage used for condemnation?
For into judgment, in this sense, they shall not come who hear His
word, and believe on Him that sent Him.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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