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The Last Day

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 26, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 16.

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The Last Day

By Rev. E. Guy Talbott

By Rev. E. Guy Talbott
[The first division of this sermon, “The Second Coming of Christ,” was given last week. It concludes with the last four divisions in this issue.—ED. S. OF T.]
Text: “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Matt. 24: 3.
Introduction: Universality and Importance of Eschatological Beliefs. I. The Second Coming of Christ. II. The End of the World. III. The Resurrection. IV. The Judgment. V. Heaven or Hell?

II. The End of the World

RELIGION and science agree that this world will sometime be destroyed. The indestructibility of matter is not a tenet of modern science. Philosophy likewise agrees in this belief. The best philosophers accept the fiat creation of religion — also fiat annihilation. The latest philosophy, that of Personal Idealism, teaches that the material universe is but the thought, or rather the manifestation or expression of the thought, of God. If this be true, then whenever the material universe ceases to represent the thought of God, it will cease to exist. In other words, the material universe has no ontological reality. Science reaches this conclusion on other and more material grounds. As a result of chemical disintegration, the material world will some day be consumed. Of course, science puts that fatal day far in the future; but time, even to the human mind, is but a form of thought, and has no ontological reality. “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
To the Christian, the time of the end of the world is the day of Christ’s coming. The disciples asked the Lord, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Jesus did not rebuke this conception of the end of the world as synchronous with His coming; hence we may accept it as the correct idea.
Isaiah, with prophetic eye, saw the great day when “all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.” Peter says: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . . But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat!”

III. The Resurrection

Connected with the thought of Christ’s second coming and the end of the world, is the thought of the resurrection of the dead. Doubtless in point of time, the ideas of the second advent, the end of the world, the resurrection, the last judgment, and the entrance into the future world are synchronous; yet logically they come in the order named.
The idea of the resurrection of the dead and the hope of immortality are instinctive in the human heart. Annihilation of the human ego is almost unthinkable. Even Robert G. Ingersoll, who loved to pose as an atheist, made this paradoxical statement at his brother’s grave: “Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word; but in the night of death hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing!”
How different is the hope of the Christian!
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead marks the consummation of His mission to this world. Without the resurrection His mission would have been a failure. The mission of Jesus Christ to this world was far greater and grander than His message to the world. His message, aside from His death and resurrection, could not have saved the world.
The preaching of the apostles was plainly characterized by the preaching of the resurrection Gospel. Indeed, the three doctrines most largely taught by the apostles were the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the second coming.
The doctrine of the resurrection of the body was held by Abraham, Moses, Job, Isaiah, Daniel, and Hosea, and by the great majority of the Jews — except the sect of the Sadducees. St. Paul was the great defender of the doctrine. He says: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain: ye are yet in your sins. . . . But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.”

The Last Judgment

We instinctively feel that death does not end our existence. Christianity teaches that death simply marks the end of our earth existence, but that it absolutely fixes our destiny. There is no room in any of Christ’s teachings, nor in the Gospel plan of salvation, for a future probation. The life here on earth is a probation if it is anything. Jesus said: “The time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” The word translated “still” conveys with it the idea of both continuity and increase. As we are living here when we die, we continue to live in the life to come. The future life is a life of infinite progression, either upward or downward.
The last judgment idea carries with it the idea of responsibility. “Conscience doth make cowards of us all.” That is, conscience makes us all feel that we are answerable for our lives to some higher power. That is why there are so many death-bed confessions of crimes and sins — men want to ease conscience before going to meet God. The judgment is for all men, and for the smallest act of each individual man. While death fixes our destiny — heavenward or hellward — the last judgment determines our reward or punishment.
It is the great day, the last day, the day of Christ’s coming, the day that marks the end of time, the judgment-day — the day that is to determine the fate of the entire human race. Describing the scene, John says: “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 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 death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
What an awful scene that must have been! It were as impossible to count the number of that mighty host, as to count the drops of water in the ocean. Every man born into this world, from Adam until time shall be no more — all are there with bowed knee before the throne of Jesus Christ. But they are not there to worship, but to be judged. Every man is there to give account of himself to God. Adam is there; Cain is there, to give account of his murderous acts; Isaac is there; Jezebel, with her bloody hands; John, the butcher of Israel; David, the sweet singer; Paul, and Peter, and John, and Mary the mother of Jesus — all these and their friends and neighbors are there. The countless martyrs are there; the millions upon millions of pure, spotless babes; the thieves, the murderers,the lecherous wretches who have ruined pure girls, the drunkards, the preachers, the mothers, the wives, the kings and princes, the rich men and the mighty men, the slaves, the beggars and scum of the cities — all, all are there before Jesus Christ, to be judged “according to his deeds.”
You will be there; and I will be there. Are you ready to give account of yourself before God? Is there some dark crime or sin that you are hiding? Is there some secret sin you have not confessed? Is your record clear in the sight of the great Judge of all men? Have all your sins been blotted out, washed white in the blood of the Lamb, who has now become the Judge?
There are two sets of books before the Judge. In one set are contained the life records of each one — the words, the thoughts, the acts of each one; in the other book are the names of those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Is your name written there? “And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Heaven or Hell

We still have before us the judgment scene. The result of the judgment is about to be pronounced. Sentence is about to be passed. Some are to go into everlasting punishment, some are to enter eternal bliss.
“When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. . . . Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. . . . And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”
John Wesley was once preaching on the judgment-day. He seemed to have a vision of the coming King and of the judgment. “See! see! He cometh! He maketh the clouds His chariot! He rideth upon the wings of the wind! A devouring fire goeth before Him, and after Him a flame burneth! See! He sitteth upon His throne, clothed with light as with a garment, arrayed with majesty and honor! Behold, His eyes are as a flame of fire, His voice as the sound of many waters!
“How will ye escape? Will ye call to the mountains to fall on you? the rocks to cover you? Alas, the mountains themselves, the rocks, the earth, the heavens, are just ready to flee away! Can ye prevent the sentence? Wherewith? With all the substance of thy house, with thousands of gold and silver? Blind wretch! Thou camest naked from thy mother’s womb, and more naked into eternity. Hear the Lord the Judge! ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ Joyful sound! How widely different from that voice which echoes through the expanse of heaven, ‘Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!’ And who is he that can prevent or retard the full execution of either sentence! Vain hope! Lo, hell is moved from beneath to receive those who are ripe for destruction! And the everlasting doors lift up their heads that the heirs of glory may come in! O that ye now may give yourselves to Him who gave Himself for you, in humble faith, in holy, active, patient love! So shall ye rejoice with exceeding joy in His day, when He cometh in the clouds of heaven!”

The One Civilizer

I HAVE had twenty-one years’ experience among the South Sea Islanders, and for at least nine years of my life I have lived with the savages of New Guinea. I have seen the semicivilized and the uncivilized: I have lived with the Christian native, and I have lived, dined, and slept with the cannibal. But I have never yet met a single man or woman, or a single people, that your civilization without Christianity has civilized. Wherever there has been the slightest spark of civilized life in the Southern Seas, it has been because the Gospel has been preached there; and wherever you find in the island of New Guinea a friendly people, or a people that will welcome you, there the missionaries of the cross have been preaching Christ.—James Chalmers.