= 9 = THE SAINTS SITTING
IN JUDGMENT
The coronation of Christ is for the execution of the judgment. Daniel
7:9-14; Psalms 110; 45:1-7; 2:6-9. Our Lord makes his people sharers
with him in the judgment work. That they may be such, he exalts them to
participate with him in his kingly dignity. Revelation 3:21; 2:26,27.
This exaltation is given them in the morning of the great day. Compare
Psalm 49:14,15; 110:3; 30:5; Isaiah 21:11,12; Romans 13:11,12.
They are to sit with Christ in the judgment, but not to determine who
shall be saved or who lost. God the Father has already pronounced the
decision who shall have immortality, and the Son has executed that
decision by immortalizing his saints. And thus all others are counted
unworthy of eternal life, and must receive the second death as their
portion. But there are degrees of punishment. Some shall receive
greater damnation than others. Luke 20:47; Romans 2:6,8,9; Luke
12:47,48.
Bear in mind, therefore, that the saints have not in their hands the
determination of the salvation or damnation of anyone. The Father has
decided this when he made them immortal and left all the others as
unworthy. Also bear in mind that God keeps books of record (Isaiah
65:6,7; Jeremiah 2:22; Daniel 7:9,10; Revelation 20:12), and that he
weighs men's actions, so that they are set down for their true worth (1
Samuel 2:3). If the reader will do this, it will not seem strange to
him to learn that the immortal saints, with Christ at their head, should
be commissioned by the Father to determine the measure of punishment
which each wicked man shall receive.
As we have already shown that the final perdition of the wicked is
determined by the Father before he makes his saints immortal, if we now
clearly prove that the glorified saints are to sit with Christ and
determine the measure of guilt of each sinful man, it will be a most
convincing proof that there is to be a resurrection of the unjust, that
God may inflict the just penalty upon every soul of man that doeth evil.
Romans 2:5-9.
When our Lord says to those at his right hand, "Come, ye blessed of
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world," he takes his saints into the presence of his Father (compare
John 13:36; 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17; Revelation 19:1-9), to the
Paradise of God, once here upon earth (Genesis 2:8,9; 3:22-24), now in
the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2-4), within the heavenly Jerusalem
itself (compare Revelation 2:7; 22:2,14). Here they sit down with him
at his table and eat the marriage supper. Revelation 19:1-9. These
things being accomplished, the work of judgment is committed to the
saints, a work so vast that we may well conceive the long period which
lies between the two resurrections to be requisite for its
accomplishment. Rev.20:4-6. The sitting of the saints in judgment upon
the wicked must begin after they have heard the words of Christ
approving them in his Father's name, and before the sentence, "Depart ye
cursed," is pronounced by the Saviour upon those who shall be thus
judged. This judgment by the saints is thus presented in the
Scriptures:-
I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed
against them; until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given
to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints
possessed the kingdom. Daniel 7:21,22
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who
both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make
manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have
praise of God. 1 Corinthians 4:5
Dare any of you having a matter against another, go to law before
the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints
shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are
ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall
judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 1
Corinthians 6:1-3
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given
unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the
witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped
the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their
foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the
thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on
such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God
and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. Revelation
20:4-6
According to the first of these texts, the saints of the Most High
are to have the judgment work committed to them. But before this is
placed in their hands, they are themselves to be judged by God the
Father. And this very act of determining who are worthy to be saved,
really determines that all the others are unworthy of eternal life. The
judgment work of the saints cannot, therefore, relate to the salvation
or damnation of those who are judged by them, but solely to the
determination of the measure of their guilt. The second of these texts,
in forbidding the work of judgment "before the time," plainly implies
that when that time does come, then this work is to be done by those who
are at present forbidden to do it. And the time is fixed when this
prohibition expires, for it is thus limited, "Until the Lord come."
That they will not err in the judgment which they will then perform is
guaranteed in the further statement that the Lord shall bring to light
the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the
heart. And this will no doubt be accomplished by placing in their hands
the books of record, which contain an accurate statement of the deeds of
those to be judged by them. Barnes, in his notes on this text, makes
this remark:
'And then shall every man have praise of God.' The word here
rendered praise, epainos, denotes in this place reward, or that which
is due to him; the just sentence which ought to be pronounced on his
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:-
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. 2 Peter 2:4
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. Jude 6
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 to 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. Romans 2:5-9.
Doctor Bloomfield says of 1 Corinthians 6:2:
Upon the whole, there is, after all, no interpretation that
involves less 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 Peter 2:4; Jude 6, reserved unto the
judgment of the last day.
And Doctor Barnes speaks thus:
Grotius supposes that 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 by 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 Daniel 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 of God the
Father. And when the judgment is given to the immortal saints, and they
are able to enter the temple after the outpouring of the plagues
(Revelation 15:8), it appears that they sit upon the thrones thus placed
for them, and with the Saviour at their head finish the work of the
judgment as indicated in the text examined. They are, in this exalted
state, priests to God and Christ, not as mediators with them in behalf
of wicked men, but as worshipers of God and the Lamb, even as Christians
in their mortal state are a royal priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5,9.
The reason why so vast a period as 1,000 years intervenes between the
resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked, is now
made very apparent. The work committed to the saints demands no less a
period than that assigned it by the Holy Scriptures. It is that they
examine the books of God's records to determine the measure of guilt of
each wicked man, and of every fallen angel. To this great exaltation
the psalmist refers in these words:-
For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people; he will beautify the
meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing
aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the
heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with
chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them
the judgment written; this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the
Lord. Psalm 149:4-9
The saints have no participation in the work of the judgment until
the coming of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 4:5. The decision of every case
is made by God the Father before he sends his Son to execute the
judgment. Daniel 7:9-14, compared with Jude 14, 15. It is the execution
of the judgment, therefore, that pertains to the Son. John 5:22,27. And
that work which is given to the Son, he shares with his saints. For
when he sits in his throne, all his saints shall sit down with him in
it, as he once thus sat down with the Father. And that power which the
Father gives him over the nations when he receives his own throne, he
shares with his saints when he exalts them to his right hand to unite
with him in the execution of the judgment. Compare Psalm 2:6-9;
Revelation 2:26,27. The most important part of this work is the
determination of that measure of guilt which pertains to each individual
of the lost. God the Father having pronounced them unworthy of eternal
life, it is then the business of the saints to determine the measure of
punishment which their respective lives of sin demand. This psalm is
worthy of careful study.
1. When the meek are beautified with salvation, it will be by the
change to immortality. They will bear the image of the second Adam,
as in this life they bear that of the first. 1 Corinthians 15:47-49.
Compare also Isaiah 33:17 with 1 John 3:2
2. This beautifying of the saints, and exalting them to glory, precede
their participation in the judgment, mentioned in verses 7-9 of psalm
149.
3. The two-edged sword in their hand is doubtless the same as that
which proceeded out of the mouth of him whose name is called the Word
of God. Revelation 19:11-15
4. And if we consider this psalm from verse 6 to verse 9, we shall see
that the work of the immortal saints in the judgment of the wicked is
effected by the examination of the book of God, the sharp sword which
they hold in their hands (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12), and the
written record of their evil deeds; so that the record of their lives
will be compared with the rule given them to govern their conduct, and
the measure of their guilt thus determined.
A brief survey of Revelation 20 may now be in place. We understand
the events of this chapter, as stated in verses 1-11, are given very
nearly in strict chronological order, and that verses 12-15 cover some
of the same ground, namely, that of the final judgment.
It has already been shown that God the Father sits in judgment before
the advent of Christ, and that at this tribunal our Lord acts as
advocate for his people, and closes his priesthood with securing their
acquittal and the blotting out of their sins. He determines every case,
deciding who shall have eternal life, and thus counting all others
unworthy of it. Then he commits the execution of the judgment to the
Son, who, in fulfillment of this work, makes his saints immortal, and
associates them with himself in the judgment of the wicked. When God
thus commits the judgment to his Son, and the Son ceases forever his
work of intercession, the words of Psalm 76:7-9 will be found true:-
Thou, even thou, art to be feared; and who may stand in thy sight
when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from
heaven; the earth feared, and was still, when God arose to judgment,
to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.
When the Son of God shall thus save all the meek of the earth, he
will raise them up from the dust to inherit the throne of his own glory.
1 Samuel 2:8; Matthew 25:31-33; Revelation 3:21. But the adversaries of
the Lord will be broken to pieces; out of heaven will he thunder upon
them (Revelation 16:18); he will render decision in strict justice in
the case of all men, and then clothe his anointed king with strength to
execute that decision (1 Samuel 2:10). Indeed, it is because the Son
loves righteousness, and hates iniquity, that he is anointed to do this
work. Psalm 45:7; 2:6-9. His arrows will be sharp in the heart of the
King's enemies (Psalm 45:4,5), and none will escape his just infliction
of wrath (Romans 2:6-9).
The session of the judgment by God the Father is to determine who
shall have part in the resurrection of the just. The session of the
Father's judgment being an event that precedes the advent of his Son,
the dead have their cases brought into the judgment in the books which
are brought forth, and in particular the righteous dead appear in the
person of their Advocate. They do not personally stand as dead men at
the Father's judgment-seat, for that is in the heavenly temple; but they
are judged by the Father while dead, as if they were personally present
at his bar; and all who have secured the services of the only Advocate
in the court of heaven, by obeying the gospel while they lived, will
have decision rendered, that the Spirit of God shall quicken them to
immortality. 1 Peter 4:6. This judgment work begins with the saints
who render account through their High Priest; and if they are scarcely
accounted worthy of eternal life when weighed in the balances of the
sanctuary, what will be the end of those who have no Advocate in the
judgment, but who come up to it with all their sins standing against
them in the book of God? 1 Peter 4:17,18. Verily, the ungodly shall not
stand in the judgment. Psalm 1:5.
When the Ancient of Days was shown to Daniel in vision, sitting in
judgment, preparatory to the advent of his Son to execute that judgment,
the words of the little horn, spoken at that very time, attracted the
prophet's attention: "I beheld then because of the voice of the great
words which the horn spake." Daniel 7:11. The Hebrew word rendered
"then" is very emphatic in the signification of "at that time."
Gesenius renders it, "at that time, thereupon, then," And it is
specially worthy of notice that at this very time the head of the Romish
apostasy had assembled at Rome the entire body of popish bishops, almost
equal in number to Belshazzar's lords (Daniel 5), and expected and
required of them to pronounce him infallible! It is evident, indeed,
that for this very purpose he assembled them, and they obeyed his
behest. We have, therefore, heard the great words of the little horn,
which even arrested the attention of the prophet while in vision he
beheld the tribunal of the Father.
The binding of Satan precedes the resurrection of the just. This
seems plain enough from Revelation 20, but it is very plainly taught in
our Lord's parable of binding the strong man and spoiling his house.
Matthew 12:29; Mark 3:27; Luke 11:21,22. He is evidently bound before
the complete slaughter of the wicked in the battle of the great day.
Every mention of the bottomless pit, or deep, or abyss, both in the
Old Testament and in the New, seems plainly to refer to our earth, or
some part of it, in some form, or at some time. And in the most
emphatic sense, after our earth has been turned upside down by the awful
convulsions of the great day, and made utterly desolate, we understand
it to be fully fitted to constitute the place of Satan's confinement,
termed in this prophecy the bottomless pit. A strong confirmation of
this view is found in the fact that this expression is used in the
Septuagint in Genesis 1:2, where the earth, while yet without form and
void, is spoken of as the deep; Greek, the bottomless pit. And the
Hebrew original signifies the same. And it is predicted that our earth
shall be reduced to this condition again. Jeremiah 4:23.
This binding of the devil is to be at the very time when, as the
scape-goat, he receives the sins of the righteous. Leviticus 16. And
our earth in its utter desolation is the land not inhabited, where he
shall remain with this terrible load of guilt upon him, while the saints
sit in judgment upon the fallen angels, and upon all the members of the
human family who would go on still in their sins.
The judgment of wicked men, and of evil angels, by the saints, during
the thousand years, will solve to their minds, by means of the
examination of the books of God's remembrance, the providence of God,
which has seemed dark and mysterious; for God will then lay open the
hidden springs of human conduct, and bring to light the hidden things of
darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart. 1 Corinthians
4:5.
The course of those who have diligently used the comparatively small
measure of light which has been granted them, will come up to condemn
those who have been favored with great light and have neglected it.
Matthew 12:41,42; Luke 11:31,32.
And in like manner those who have been cut off in their sins, as a
warning to others, and who would have repented had as great light been
granted them as those who have lived at a later time have enjoyed, will
come up in this examination to condemn most fearfully those who have had
the example of their fate, and had seen greater light than they, and yet
have not repented. Matthew 11:21-23; Luke 10:13.
But even those wicked men who have been thus cut off by God's
judgments as an example to those that after should live ungodly, shall
come up in the judgment for the complete punishment of their sins. But
their case shall be more tolerable in the judgment than that of those
who have had the example of their punishment, and have had far greater
light than they were favored with, and yet have refused to repent.
Matthew 10:15; 11:22,24; Luke 10:12,14. Thus, even the mitigating
circumstances are taken into the account in the judgment of the wicked
as certainly as are those of an aggravating character. Surely God is,
in the highest sense, just and righteous.
The record of the righteous, as we have seen, is passed upon by the
Father when he counts them worthy to have part in the resurrection to
immortality, and by the Son when they stand before him to receive
according to their labors and sacrifices in the cause of God. And that
record will show, in the case of everyone who is able to stand in the
judgment, so perfect a work of repentance, and confession, and
reparation of wrongs done toward others, that not one sinful man can
rise up in the judgment against them. Isaiah 54:17.
The judgment, by the saints of Satan and his angels and of wicked men
being accomplished, it appears that, just before the thousand years
expire, the holy city, with its immortal inhabitants, descends upon our
earth, upon a place prepared for it. See Zechariah 14:4,5.
At the termination of the 1,000 years all the wicked dead hear the
voice of the Son of God and come forth (John 5:28,29); the unjust have
their resurrection (Acts 24:15); "The rest of the dead" live again
(Revelation 20:5). They come forth from the depths of the ocean and
from the caverns of earth; for the sea gives up the dead, and hades
gives them up also. And they come forth alive, for death itself gives
them up. Revelation 20:13.
And now Satan is loosed for his final work. He begins it just where
he left off. He had gathered the nations to the great battle, when he
was bound and they were cut off. Revelation 19. Now, after they have
been "many days" in the "prison," the time comes for Satan to visit them
as they are loosed from it for their execution. Isaiah 24:21,22; Ezekiel
38:8,9. He resumes his work by inciting them to capture the city of
God. Revelation 20:7-9. And thus, by the direct action of Satan, all
the wicked, with himself and his angels at their head, stand in the
presence of Christ, for the execution of the judgment.
As the righteous stand in Christ's presence immediately after they
are made immortal, that they may each receive according to their labor
(2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 16:27), so do the wicked thus stand in his
presence after the second resurrection. As the righteous cannot receive
punishment for their sins after they have been blotted out, it follows
that those who stand before him to receive for their evil deeds are the
wicked, who stand thus in his presence, after the examination of their
cases by his saints, during the 1,000 years.
We may safely conclude that many who go down to their graves
self-deceived, will come up in the second resurrection really expecting
to be saved, and quite unaware that it is the resurrection of the
unjust. We think this is the very time when our Lord's words shall have
their fulfillment:-
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name
done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:22,23
And now, for the first time, all the members of the human family are
congregated in one vast assembly. The wicked see the righteous in the
kingdom of God, and realize that they themselves are thrust out. And
when the wicked realize the mercy which they have slighted, and the
infinite sacrifice made for their salvation in the death of God's only
Son, and remember their persistent continuance in sin till God could
bear no longer, every knee will bow in deepest abasement, acknowledging
that God is just, and that their ruin was caused by themselves alone,
while the throne of God is forever clear.
And as both classes behold the final result of faithful obedience,
and of persistent sins, they will, with one mind and voice, declare,
"Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that
judgeth in the earth." Psalm 58:11. And now the Son of God
pronounces the awful sentence, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matthew 25:41.
And now, after the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, fire comes down
from God out of heaven and devours them. Revelation 20:9; 2 Peter 2:6;
Genesis 19:24-28. It is the burning earth that constitutes the great
lake of fire in which the wicked shall experience the second death. 2
Peter 3:7-12; Malachi 4:1-3; Proverbs 11:31. Satan and his angels shall
share this furnace of fire with wicked men; for, indeed, it was
originally prepared for them. Matthew 25:41; Isaiah 30:33.
Finally, the earth shall be not only melted, but dissolved. 2 Peter
3:10,11. Such shall be the intense action of the devouring fire, that
the earth itself shall be reduced to a molten mass and changed by the
power of him that sitteth upon the great white throne. Hebrews 1:12.
Then he that sitteth upon the throne shall say, "Behold, I make all
things new." Revelation 21:5. And all the elements that were dissolved
in the devouring fire shall unite again to form the earth. The New
Jerusalem shall have place upon the new earth, and the glory of God
shall fill the earth as the waters fill the sea. The saints shall bear
the image of the second Adam, as now they bear that of the first, and
shall live for endless ages. Sin, being thus struck out of existence,
in the utter destruction of all evil-doers, shall never rise up again to
mar the handiwork of God. The universe shall be as clean as it was
before the rebellion of Satan, and
GOD SHALL BE ALL IN ALL.
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