The Judgment of the Saints
By Uriah Smith
character. It does not mean, as our translation would imply, that every man will then receive the divine approbation—which will not be true; but that every man shall receive what is due to his character, whether good or evil. So Bloomfield and Bretschneider explain it. The third text states, in the most explicit manner, "that the saints shall judge the world." As it occurs in the same epistle which forbids this judgment "before the time until the Lord come," it is manifest that this is a work which the saints enter upon immediately after they have been exalted to reign with Christ. The nature of the judgment which the saints are to decide is clearly determined by two facts: 1. It is rendered by the saints after the Lord has brought to light the hidden works of darkness, and made manifest the counsels of the hearts. 2. It is said in this same passage, and in the same manner, that the saints "shall judge angels," meaning of course those angels that have sinned whose cases are thus stated:— 2 Pet. 2:4: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." Jude 6: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." These two facts are decisive as to the nature of the judgment which the saints are to engage in when exalted at Christ's right hand. They are not to be judges over men in a state of probation, something as the ancient judges of Israel were raised up to rule over God's ancient people; but their judgment is to be rendered in the case of wicked men, when the Lord brings "to light the hidden things of darkness," and it is to be exercised alike in the case of sinful men and fallen angels. It is not a judgment to determine the guilt or innocence of the parties to be judged; for the guilt of the angels was virtually pronounced to be unpardonable when they were cast out of heaven, and delivered to chains of darkness, i.e., to utter despair, and the hopeless bondage of their own sins. And the last condition of wicked men has, before their judgment by the saints, already been determined by the resurrection and translation of the just, leaving all others as unworthy of eternal life. This judgment of the saints is, therefore, simply designed to determine the measure of the guilt of wicked men and fallen angels. As their rejection from the kingdom of God is determined by God the Father before they are thus judged by the saints, this judgment by them for the determination of the measure of each man's guilt, is a most convincing proof that God designs, in rendering to every man according to his deeds, to inflict tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil. Rom. 2:5-9. Dr. Bloomfield says of 1 Cor. 6:2: "Upon the whole, there is, after all, no interpretation that involves less of difficulty than the common one, supported by some Latin Fathers, and, of modern divines, by Luther, Calvin, Erasmus, Beza, Cassaubon, Crellius, Wolf, Jeremy Taylor, Doddridge, Pearce, Newcome, Scott, and others, by which it is supposed that the faithful servants of God, after being accepted in Christ, shall be in a certain sense, assessores judicii, by concurrence, with Christ, and being partakers of the judgment to be held by him over wicked men and apostate angels; who are, as we learn from 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6, reserved unto the judgment of the last day." And Dr. Barnes speaks thus: "Grotius supposes it means that they shall be first judged by Christ, and then act as assessors to him in the judgment, or join with him in condemning the wicked." But the fourth text relative to this judgment by the saints is very remarkable. It shows that the resurrection of the just precedes the work of judgment by them. It elevates them to thrones of judgment, where they live and reign with Christ, during the period between their own resurrection and that of "the rest of the dead." It assigns the space of time occupied in this vast work: viz., a thousand years, a period none too long for this examination of the books containing the deeds of all wicked men and fallen angels, even though all the saints engage in it, as we have learned that they do. There is in this statement respecting the thrones, an evident allusion to Dan. 7:9, which speaks of thrones being "cast down," or more correctly rendered "were placed," as many able critics inform us. These thrones were placed for the judgment work, when entered upon, as we have seen, in the second apartment of the heavenly temple by God the Father. And when the judgment is given to the immortal