The Judgment-Day—When is it?

Heb. 9:27: “It is appointed to men once to die; but after this the judgment.”

IT is the object of this note to show that, if the passage quoted read, “It is appointed unto men once to die; but immediately after this their judgment,” it would more exactly and unequivocally express the meaning of the inspired writer.

I. This is proved by reference to the best Greek dictionaries. “Lid-dell and Scott is a fair representative of them all. The critical reader will find, by reference to this dictionary, that the Greek preposition which is here used (μετά) is followed by either the Genitive, Dative, or Accusative; and that it almost always expresses a close connection, but varies somewhat in its meaning, according as it is followed by one or another of the three cases. In the passage under investigation it is followed by the Accusative (μετὰ τοῦτο). And it is defined by Liddell and Scott (under No. III.) thus: 1. In order of place, after, next after, behind. … 2. In order of time, after, next to… . 3. In order of worth, rank, etc., next to, next after, after. Immediate sequence is, evidently, the ordinary meaning.

II. The usage of the New Testament writers is a strong argument in justification of the amended translation. If I have made no mistake in counting, μετά is used in the Greek Testament exactly ninety-nine times with the Accusative; and, leaving out the passage under consideration, it means “immediately after,” or “next after,” more than ninety times. In three or four cases it expresses the general fact of sequence, without indicating immediate sequence. So we come to this verse in Hebrews with μετά meaning “immediately after” about thirty times as often as it means simply “after.”

It would require more space than I have at command to refer to all the ninety odd instances; but a few of them may be taken as fair samples of the whole. Take the first verse of the seventeenth chapter of Matthew, which reads: “After six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart.” How long after six days? A week? or a month? or a year? Certainly, “immediately after” six days. All agree in this. The very object is to define the exact time. But if μετά means “after” in general, there is no exact statement of time. For any time within unnumbered years would have been “after six days.” Of this sort there are about twenty instances. Take also the twentieth verse of the twenty-second chapter of Luke: “Likewise also the cup after supper.” Evidently, “immediately after.” Take another example—one of the most obscure cases. In the sixth verse of the twentieth chapter of Acts, Paul is reported as saying: “We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread.” The history that follows shows that it must have been “immediately after.” Paul was going to Jerusalem, to be there at the Pentecost. The interval was fifty days at most. They came to Troas in five days; they tarried there seven days; from Troas Paul walked to Assos (twenty miles) — thence they sailed to Mitylene; the next day to Chios; the next day to Trogyllium; next day to Miletus; from there he sent to Ephesus (thirty miles) for the elders of the church to come to Miletus; they came. After the interview they sailed to Cos; the next day to Rhodes; then to Patara; thence to Tyre (three hundred and forty miles), there they staid seven days; thence to Ptolemais, where they abode one day; thence to Cæsarea (thirty to forty miles) by laud; there they tarried “many days.” Then they took up their baggage and went to Jerusalem. As the whole time did not exceed fifty days it will be seen that they must have left Philippi immediately after the days of unleavened bread. Even then the “many days” of their tarry at Tyre could not have been more than twelve.

Attention is called to but one more illustration of the use of μετά to express immediate sequence; and that is one which might naturally be quoted against the teaching of this note, John 13:7: “What I do, thou knowest not now: but thou shalt know hereafter.” The reader will find that hereafter (μετὰ ταῦτα) meant immediately after, and that what Christ said was substantially this: “You do not understand now what my washing your feet means; but I will explain it as soon as I am through.” And that is what he did (see John 13:12). I repeat it —that more than ninety times out of ninety-nine, μετά denotes immediate sequence. So the strong presumption would be in favor of that rendering in the case before us.

3. This rendering entirely harmonizes with the uniform teaching of the Scriptures that men at the judgment-day are judged according to the deeds done in the body. There is no plainer writing in the Bible than in Second Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ: that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” Why, then, should not judgment be pronounced at the moment of death? The account to be adjusted is closed up at that time; it would be a most unnatural proceeding to postpone for hundreds of years the announcement of the judge’s decision. Indeed, this passage itself seems to me to be enough to settle the question. We are to receive according to the deeds done in the body; and receive it when the record is finished.

4. The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus teaches distinctly that the wicked Rich Man passed directly from earth to his punishment. His brothers were still living on the earth; he had not only received his sentence, but it was irrevocable; a great gulf was fixed, and one impassable. Nothing could be more preposterous in any government than that a man should be assigned to punishment without the possibility of pardon, reprieve, or commutation, before he had passed through his trial, been pronounced guilty, and received his sentence from a competent judge. Let the reader refresh his memory with the Scripture, as found in the sixteenth chapter of Luke, beginning with the nineteenth verse.

V. Equally strong in proof that men come to their final judgment at death, are the representations which the Bible makes of the condition of the redeemed after death. Paul thought it was far better to depart and be with Christ than to live here, although his joys in the service of Christ were so beatific that he could even glory in his tribulations. Stephen prayed as he came to his last moment: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and he was gone to be forever with the Lord. Now what does the word teach us as to where Christ is? If we can find out the answer to this question, then we shall know where Stephen and Paul went when they ended their earthly life. There ought to be no difficulty in answering the question; for there is no possible ambiguity in the statements made in this matter. The following are among the testimonies of the Sacred Scriptures, which are too plain to be misunderstood: —

Mark 16:19: “The Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into Heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.”

Luke 24:51: “While he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven.”

John 3:13: “The Son of man who is in Heaven.”

1 Thess. 1:10: “We wait for the Lord Jesus from Heaven.”

2 Thess. 1:7: “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels.”

Eph. 6:9: “Both their Master and yours is in Heaven.”

Heb. 9:24: “Christ is not entered into a holy place made with hands, but into Heaven itself.”

1 Pet. 3:22: “Jesus Christ who is gone into Heaven, and who is on the right hand of God

Such quotations might be multiplied; it is not necessary. If Paul went away from earth, then, to be with Christ, he must have gone into Heaven; and this was the promise made to all the faithful, when Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3.

It surely is not necessary for me to spend many words to prove that Heaven is the place where God dwells; the place of highest and final reward for the faithful; the place prepared for the eternal home of the saved. Christ’s words, “Your reward is in Heaven,” “Lay up for yourselves treasure in Heaven”; Paul’s saying, “For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens”; Peter’s “inheritance reserved in Heaven.”—these, and many other words like them, are too familiar to need a word of emphasis. I only ask the reader to notice that Paul’s language to the Corinthians plainly implies that the house from Heaven is ready the very moment our earthly tabernacle is taken down (2 Cor. 5:1–4).

Is it true, then, that all the redeemed who have passed away have gone to Heaven, without being judged to be lit to go there? Are they already in possession of their eternal inheritance, and yet their judgment-day is in the future? Are Moses, and Elias, and Daniel, and Job, and all the martyrs, who for Christ’s sake have not counted their lives dear unto them,—are all of these yet to be judged? Are they all still in suspense as to their eternal destiny? Have they been admitted to Heaven without being first adjudged worthy of such reward? All these absurdities are involved in the doctrine of a universal judgment-day still in the indefinite future.

6. Yea, more than these, even, as will shortly appear. I know it is argued by some that no man can be properly judged until the end of the world, because the full consequences of his deeds here can only then be known and revealed. But this objection is seen to be of no force from two considerations: —

1. No man’s acts are to be adjudged either good or baa in view of their consequences. A man with deadly purpose to murder another, follows him to the forest; levels his rifle to send a bullet through the heart of his intended victim; but just then the wing of a bird strikes the rifle, and the bullet enters the heart of a wild beast that was about to leap upon the man for whom the bullet was intended. The result is the saving of the man’s life, instead of its destruction. The man with the rifle is a murderer, nevertheless. Joseph’s brethren sold him into slavery, and were ready to send him to death; but, under the overruling Providence of God, the r» suits of their deed were the saving of a million lives. None the less, when they came to see themselves in their true light, they were constrained to say, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother.” “As a man purposeth in his heart, so is he,” “Give them according to their endeavors “was an inspired prayer. The motives of human action determine character, not at all the results which may, under Divine control, be brought about.

2. If a man cannot be properly judged till the full consequences of his acts are realized, then he could never be judged. He would be no more prepared for judgment at the end of ten thousand years, than at the end of a single night; for the results of conduct enlarge and expand without end. The results of Judas’s act in bringing out the divine character and commission of the Son of God have, as yet, scarcely begun to appear. None the less his evil intent settled his character; and settled his destiny too, unless he truly repented.

Those who will question the views of this note believe in a general judgment-day still to come. And, as far as I have ever heard or read the setting-forth of their views, they believe in a general convocation of all human beings who have ever peopled this globe, or who shall ever live upon it; and they argue that the purpose of such a judgment is to carry conviction to all intelligent beings that the judgment of God is right. All mankind are to see, as the true history of each man is brought to the light, that God is just in his treatment of him. I have heard this view preached and taught with great eloquence and impressiveness; but, when I came to think it through, it seemed to me to be so utterly preposterous that I marveled that any clear-headed man should be able to accept it. If this world’s history were to be closed up at the end of this third year of the twentieth century, the entire population of the globe, according to the lowest estimate which I have ever heard made of it, would amount to one for every second of time for the space of four thousand years. Allowing one second for the distinct announcement of each name, it would require four thousand years to call the roll, without one moment’s cessation, day nor night. Allowing but one minute, on the average, for the review of each human life, so as to enable the jury to be satisfied from their own independent judgment of the deserts of each soul, it would take two hundred and forty thousand years for the judgment-day! Now, if I believed that the word of the Lord taught any such doctrine, I would try to be “satisfied with it; but I cannot help thinking that two hundred and forty thousand years of the coming eternity could be spent much more profitably than in investigating the history of our fellow-men, and making up our verdict of their just deserts. A little of Abraham’s faith when he said,” Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? “would enable us to rest perfectly content with the decision of each soul’s destiny by the Lord of the whole earth. For myself, I am sure if it were left to me to choose, I would very much prefer to be one of the ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation, than to do jury service for two hundred and forty thousand years, especially if I had to vote on a case at the end of every sixty seconds upon the average, during that entire period.

But “has not God appointed a day in which he will judge the world? “Most assuredly; and he has told us exactly when that day is. For it is appointed unto men once to die, and immediately after that comes their judgment.