SYNOPSIS OF THE PRESENT TRUTH.
By Uriah Smith
FROM early and general teaching we have been taught to look forward to a day of judgment, a brief period when a general and indiscriminate multitude of all who have ever lived, would be gathered before the bar of their Judge, to hear from his lips the decision of their characters, and receive from his hands the reward of their deeds. It is not the design of these remarks to detract in any degree from the solemnity which we have been wont in our minds to attach to this event. And we trust that it will have no such effect upon any, but rather move them to new and earnest efforts in the work of preparation, as we present evidence to show that its unalterable decisions are already passing upon the human race! A moment's consideration of the events connected with the close of this dispensation will reveal to us the fact that the line of distinction between the righteous and the wicked must be drawn before our Saviour makes his appearance; and that consequently the work of investigating the characters of mankind, and determining to which class they respectively belong, whether to the righteous or the wicked, must take place ere probation closes. There are plainly brought to view in the Scriptures two resurrections, first, of the righteous, second, of the wicked. The Scriptures affirm that all the dead shall be raised, both the just and the unjust. John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15; but not all at the same time. The righteous are raised first. Paul says that they who are Christ's are raised at his coming. 1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 4:16. Again, it was shown John that a certain class would be raised to reign with Christ, and that a thousand years thereafter the "rest of the dead" should come upon the breadth of the earth, compass the camp of the saints and be destroyed by fire. Rev. 20. Those who rise first are called blessed and holy; their resurrection is called "the first resurrection." And those who come up a thousand years thereafter are unholy, the victims of Satanic deception, and doomed to the second death. Their resurrection is, by implication, the second. Such is the testimony concerning the dead. And the same distinction is maintained in respect to the living; for we are assured that the righteous living will be changed to immortality in the twinkling of an eye at the coming of the Lord, and be caught up to meet him in the air, while the wicked will be destroyed by the brightness of his coming and the glory of his power. 2 Thess. 1:6–9; 1 Cor. 15:51–54. In each of these cases, if previous to the time of their resurrection or change, there has been no investigation of the characters of the sleeping or living multitudes, how is it determined who are "the dead in Christ," who among the living crowds that throng the earth are worthy of immortality, and who should be abandoned to the dreary, hopeless slumber of a thousand years? One fact will here be apparent to every mind. It is that after the righteous dead are raised, the living saints changed and caught up to meet the Lord in the air, there exists no necessity for any further judgment in their case, unless it be admitted that there may possibly have been some mistake in the matter, and the holy garb of immortality been bestowed upon some unworthy object from whom it must be torn again, or that some unsanctified character has been called from his dusty bed, whose only portion should have been the second resurrection and the second death. To suppose, we say, a judgment on the righteous after it has been decided who are righteous, and they have been raised, is to admit the possibility of a mistake in the matter. But from casting such an imputation on the divine government, we at least, must be excused. There are some texts supposed to prove a general and promiscuous judgment, which perhaps are entitled to a passing notice. Space will not permit an extended discussion of them; but there are certain general principles in accordance with which they may all be harmonized. 1. Whenever we read of men's receiving their desert according to the deeds done in the body, the testimony presupposes a judgment upon their characters previous to that time, and an allotment to them of rewards and punishments. Such texts as 2 Cor. 5:10, therefore furnish no aid to the popular theory. 2. Whenever a text speaks of all nations being gathered before their Judge, it must be shown that the expression includes all who have ever lived, before it can be urged in support of a general and indiscriminate judgment; for the expression, all nations, or its equivalent, is sometimes applied to those simply who will be alive on the earth when Christ comes. See Matt. 24:30; "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Yet the wicked dead have no participation in this scene; for we are assured in Rev. 20, that they do not live till a thousand years subsequent to that event. Since therefore the expression, "all nations," may be limited to those living on the earth at any one time, such texts as Matt. 25:31, 32, are easily harmonized with the doctrine of two resurrections. 3. If the Judgment is anywhere spoken of simply as occurring after any specified point, for instance death, that expression alone is altogether too indefinite to determine its chronology. If we would understand the definite time of its occurrence, we must find other texts that tell us how long after the specified event, it takes place. Paul tells us in Heb. 9:27, that it is appointed unto men once to die, and after death the Judgment. This is usually supposed to prove that an individual is judged immediately at death. But when we look at the declarations of the Scriptures of a Judgment located near the second coming of the Saviour, we cannot admit that a Judgment has previously been passed upon mankind at death, unless we admit that the first Judgment was liable to mistakes, making a second necessary to correct the errors of the first—an absurdity against which we have already protested in this article. Seeing that no Judgment takes place at death, if Paul in Heb. 9:27 refers to the natural death of individuals (which the context will not allow, as it is an argument simply on the sanctuary work as illustrating the death of Christ), consistency compels us to let other texts come in and tell us how long after death it is before the Judgment occurs. Its chronology and character we will now consider.
U. S.