10. § 56. The Consummation of the Ages.

10. § 56. The Consummation of the Ages.

§ 56. The Consummation of the Ages.

. With the appearance of Christ on the clouds begins the יום יהוה, ἡ ἡμερα του κυριου ἡμων Ιησου Χριστου, Mt. 24:36v., Luk. 17:24v.,

21:34, Hd. 17:30, 1 Cor. 1:8, 5:5 etc. Scripture by no means intends thereby to make known that all that belongs to the last things, return, resurrection, judgment etc., runs its course within a space of twelve or twenty-four hours.

Under the Old Testament the day of the Lord was that time in which God in wondrously glorious manner as king would come to his people, in order to deliver it from all its enemies and to cause it to dwell with him in Jerusalem in peace and safety. With that coming of God the great turning-point entered, whereby the old time passed over into the new and all conditions and relations in nature and the world of men would change wholly and entirely. Later this was represented by the Jews in such a way that with the day of the Lord the present world-time, עולם הזה, passed over into the future,

עולם הבא, which then was often again further distinguished into the three generations or into the days of the Messiah lasting 40 or 100 or 600 or 1000 or 2000 or 7000 years, ימות המשיח, and the eternity entering thereafter, עולם

הבא or עתיד הבא, Weber, System 354. According to the New [482] Testament, with the first coming of Christ the last portion of the αἰων οὑτος has taken a beginning, so that we now live in the last days or in the last hour, 1 Cor. 10:11, Hebr. 1:1, 19:26, Joh. 2:18, and with his second coming the αἰων μελλων enters, Mt. 19:28, Mk. 10:30, Luk. 18:30, 20:35, 1 Cor.

15:23, Hebr. 2:5 etc., cf. Cremer s. v. αἰων. And this αἰων μελλων begins with the ἡμερα του κυριου, that is the time in which Christ appears, raises the dead, pronounces the judgment and renews the world. This time is nowhere in the N. Test. represented as going to last long; Paul says 1 Cor.

15:52, that the transformation of those remaining alive and the resurrection of the deceased believers will take place in a point of time, in an instant, cf.

1 Thess. 4:15-17; resurrection and last judgment are most closely, as into one act, connected, Luk. 14:14, 2 Cor. 4:14, Op. 20:11-13; and the judgment is set on a day, Mt. 10:15, 11:22 etc., yes even on an hour, Op.

14:7. But this last determination proves that Scripture does not think of limiting all the events in the parousia of Christ precisely within a space of twenty-four hours or of sixty minutes; ὡρα, originally season of the year, often denotes a much longer time than an hour of sixty minutes, Mt. 26:45,

Joh. 4:21, 5:25, 16:2, 32, Kom. 13:11, 1 Joh. 2:18. The events which must take place in the parousia of Christ are also so extensive that they certainly take up a considerable time. The inventions of this century have, for mutual intercourse, for the exercise of communion, for the hearing and seeing of what happens at great distance, caused the distances to shrink to a minimum; and they are probably still only beginning and prophecy of what will be discovered in following centuries. But however much with all this also in the doctrine of the last things account ought to be taken; yet his appearance of Christ, so that all see him, resurrection of all the dead and

transformation of those remaining alive, pronouncing of judgment over all men according to all their works, burning and renewal of the world are such tremendous events that they cannot take place otherwise than in a certain lapse of time.

The first event which follows upon the appearing of Christ is the resurrection of the dead. This is not the result of a development of the bodies in general, or in particular [483] of the resurrection-body implanted in believers through regeneration and sacrament, cf. Kübel, Herzog2 1, 764, but the effect of an almighty, creative act of God, Mt. 22:29, 1 Cor. 6:14,

15:38, 2 Cor. 1:9. Specifically, the Father carries out this work through the Son, to whom He has given to have life in Himself, Joh. 5:28, 6:29, 40, 44,

1 Cor. 6:14, 2 Cor. 4:14, 1 Thess. 4:14, who is the resurrection and the life, the firstborn from the dead, Joh. 11:25, Hd. 16:23, 1 Cor. 15:20, Col. 1:18,

Op. 1:5, and therefore must necessarily bring about the resurrection of His own, Joh. 6:39, 40, 1 Cor. 15:20-23, 47-49. Scripture teaches without doubt a general resurrection, a resurrection not only of believers but also of unbelievers and of all human beings, Dan. 12:2, Mt. 5:29, 30, 10:28, Joh.

5:29, Hd. 24:15, Op. 20:12, 13, and it also ascribes this to Christ, Joh. 5:29.

But it speaks of this general resurrection very seldom, because it stands in an entirely different relation to Christ than the resurrection of believers. For the resurrection of the dead in general is only incidentally a fruit of the work of Christ; it has become necessary only because temporal death has entered; and this has become separated from eternal death because God intervened with His grace. The punishment for sin was originally death, death in its full extent and weight. But because God had chosen for Himself from the fallen human race a church unto eternal life, He immediately already postponed temporal death with Adam and Eve, He let them

propagate themselves from generation to generation, and only at the end of the ages does He refer those who are disobedient to His law and gospel to eternal perdition. The general resurrection thus serves only to restore, in all human beings, the temporal breaking of the bond between soul and body, which occurred in between for the sake of grace in Christ, and to place them all as human beings, according to soul and body together, before God's judgment seat and to have them hear the judgment from His mouth. This general resurrection too the Father brings about through Christ, because He has given to the Son not only life but also judgment, and this judgment must strike the whole human being, according to both soul and body, Joh. 5:2729, cf. M. Vitringa IV 149. The resurrection of the dead in general is thus in the first place a judicial act of God. But this act is for believers full of rich consolation. And therefore in Scripture the resurrection of the congregation stands everywhere in the foreground, so much so even that the resurrection of all human beings is sometimes entirely set aside and passed over in silence, Job 19:25-27, Ps. 73:23-26, Hos. 6:2, 13:14, Jes. 26:19, 20, Ezech.

37, Mk. 12:25, 1 Cor. 15, 1 Thess. 4:16, Phil. 3:11. This resurrection is the proper, true resurrection and has been directly acquired by Christ, for it is not merely a reunion of soul and body, but a making alive, a renewal, an entering at once, according to both soul and body, into communion with Christ, a being re-created after God's image, Rom. 8:11, 29, Phil. 3:21.

Therefore Paul lets the resurrection of believers coincide with the change of those who remain alive; the latter have no advantage over the former, for the rising precedes the being changed, and together they are then led to meet the Lord in the air, 1 Cor. 15:51, 52, 2 Cor. 5:2, 4, 1 Thess. 4:15-17.

2. In this resurrection the identity of the resurrection body with the body that died is preserved. In the raisings to life which take place in the Old and

New Test. the dead body is animated with new life. Jesus rises with that same body in which He suffered on the cross and which had been laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. When Jesus died, many bodies of the saints were raised and went out of their graves, Mt. 27:52. In the resurrection on the last day all who are in the graves will hear Jesus' voice and come forth,

Joh. 5:28, 29; out of the graves, out of the sea, out of death and Hades the dead return to the earth, Op. 20:13. And Paul teaches that the resurrection body proceeds from the body that has died, just as God brings forth another from the sown grain, 1 Cor. 15:36v. This identity of the resurrection body with the body that was laid aside at death is of great significance in the Christian religion. For in the first place it thereby stands in direct opposition to every dualistic doctrine, according to which the body is only an accidental dwelling-place or even a prison of the soul. The essence of man consists [485] precisely in the closest possible union of soul and body into one personality. The soul belongs by nature with the body and the body with the soul; indeed every soul, although it does not itself create the body, nevertheless has its own body. In the identity of the body, just as much as in that of the soul, the continuity of the individual, human being is maintained.

And in the second place redemption through Christ is not a second, new creation but a re-creation. It would have been much simpler if God had destroyed the whole fallen world and replaced it with an entirely new one.

But it was His good pleasure to raise up the fallen world again, and to deliver from sin the same humanity that had sinned. This deliverance consists in this, that Christ redeems His church from all sin and from all consequences of sin, and thus also causes it to triumph completely over death. That is the last enemy that must be destroyed. And therein the power of Christ comes to expression, that He not only gives eternal life to His own

but consequently also raises them up on the last day. The rebirth out of water and spirit is completed in the rebirth of all things, Mt. 19:28. The spiritual redemption from sin is first brought to completion in the bodily redemption at the end of days. Christ is a perfect Saviour; just as He first appeared in order to establish the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of believers, so He comes once again, in order to give it a visible form and to bring His absolute power over sin and death, incontrovertibly before the eyes of all creatures, to revelation and recognition. Leiblichkeit ist das Ende der Wege Gottes. The care for the dead stands in direct connection with this.

Cremation is not to be rejected because it would set bounds and limits to God's omnipotence and would make the resurrection impossible. But it is nevertheless of pagan origin, was never in use among Israel and among the Christian peoples, and conflicts with Christian custom. By contrast, burial is much more in accordance with Scripture and confession, history and liturgy, with the doctrine of the image of God, which also comes to expression in the body, and of death as a punishment of sin, with the respect owed to the dead and the resurrection on the last day. The Christian does not preserve the corpses artificially, like the Egyptians; he also does not destroy them

[486] mechanically, as many now desire, but he entrusts them to the bosom of the earth, and lets them rest until the day of resurrection, Kuyper, Ons

Program 802v. Sartorius, Die Leichenverbrennung innerhalb der christl.

Kirche, Basel 1886.

The Christian church and theology therefore held most strictly to the identity of the resurrection body with the body that had died. Indeed, it often swung over to another extreme and confessed not only a resurrection of the flesh, but sometimes taught that the totalitas materiae, which had belonged to a body, in the resurrection would be gathered together by God

from all corners of the earth and led back to the different parts of the body in the same manner and measure as formerly, cf. Iren. adv. haer. V 12. 13.

Augustine, Enchir. 26. de civ. XX 4. 13 sq. Thomas, S. Theol. III qu. 75-86 etc. But this representation runs up against insurmountable objections. For 1o it leads to all kinds of subtle and curious investigations, which are of no value for the doctrine of the resurrection. The question then becomes whether hair and nails, blood and bile, semen and urina, intestina and genitalia will rise and will be formed from the same atoms, equal in number and kind, as those from which they here consisted in the bodies. With defective people, who lacked one or more limbs, and with children, who died young and sometimes even before birth, one came by this representation into no small embarrassment; one had, whether one wished it or not, in all these and similar cases to take refuge in the supposition that the resurrection bodies were supplemented by constituent parts that did not formerly belong to them. The resurrection cannot consist in return and vivification of the totalitas materiae. 2o Physiology teaches that the human body, like all organisms, is subject to continual metabolism, so that after seven years not a single particle of matter is any longer present of those which before that time formed the substance of the body. The substances of which our bodies consist, such as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc., are the same in kind as those which occur in other creatures around us, but they change unceasingly; and this change proves sufficiently that the identity of the bodies cannot lie in this, that they always consist of the same substances in number. It is enough that they consist of the same substances in kind. 3o

This is reinforced by the manifold metamorphoses, [487] which nature offers to view in all her kingdoms. Through the action of air, water, etc., plants pass over into peat and coal, carbon into diamond, clay into brick,

and rock into fertile earth. In the plant and animal kingdom there is within the limits of the species an endless variety. And every organism undergoes in the time of its existence a series of changes; the maggot becomes a fly, every larva passes from the undeveloped state into a more developed one, the embryo runs through different phases and then comes to an extrauterine existence, the caterpillar becomes a pupa and thereafter a butterfly, etc.

What remains the same under all these transformations, we do not know.

Matter and form change, there seems to be nothing stable in the whole organism; and yet the identity is maintained, which therefore is independent of the coarse mass of matter, of its change and quantity.

3. If we relate these data to what Scripture teaches us about the resurrection, we see the way opened to maintain both the substantial unity and also the qualitative distinction between the present and the future body.

For Scripture, in the strict sense, teaches no resurrection of the flesh but of the body. From the raisings, of which it gives us report, and from the resurrection of Christ, it is indeed possible to conclude something as to the essence, but not as to the form and the manner, with respect to the resurrection of the dead in the last of days. For in all those raisings the body still existed in its entirety, and the body of Christ was even not given over to corruption, Hd. 2:31. But the bodies of those who rise in the parousia are dissolved in their constituent parts and scattered in all manner of ways and have passed over into other creatures. Of flesh, in the proper sense, there can then no longer be any question, for flesh is always ensouled; what ceases to be ensouled and living thereby also ceases to be flesh and returns to dust again, Gen. 3:19. Job can indeed, even assuming that this translation is the correct one, say that he will behold God out of his flesh, 19:26, and Jesus after his resurrection can testify that a spirit does not have flesh and

bones, as He had, Luk. 24:39. But this nevertheless yields no conclusive proof for the resurrection of the flesh in the strict sense of this word. For the flesh of which [488] Job's body consisted was indeed the substrate for the body of the resurrection, but for that reason did not yet form its substance.

And Jesus rose with that same body in which He had died and which had not even seen corruption, and moreover remained up to his ascension in a transitional state, so that He could also still take food. Very clearly Paul teaches, however, that flesh and blood, since they are subject to perishability, cannot inherit imperishability in the kingdom of heaven.

Entirely wrongly Holsten, Holtzmann et al. have inferred from this that according to Paul the dead body does not rise at all and that the actual resurrection already takes place at death. For the apostle expressly confesses his faith in the bodily resurrection and defends it against those who in the church of Corinth denied it both with Jesus and with the believers. And he is also very decidedly of the opinion that the same body that is laid in the grave is raised in the resurrection, cf. Bornhäuser, Das

Recht des Bekenntnisses zur Auferstehung des Fleisches, Gütersloh 1899.

But at the same time he argues that the resurrection is not a restoration but a reformation. The body rises, but not as flesh and blood, weak, perishable, mortal, but as a body that is clothed with imperishability and glory. The body consisting of flesh and blood is indeed the seed from which the resurrection body comes forth, 1 Cor. 15:35-38. But nevertheless there is between the two a great difference. Already on earth there is much difference in flesh among organic beings, and in body among inorganic creatures, vs. 39-41. And likewise there is an important distinction between the present and the future body, as also the contrast of Adam and Christ proves, vs. 42-49. The first is a σωμα ψυχικον, consisting of flesh and blood

ensouled by ψυχη, subject to change; but the latter is a σωμα πνευματικον, it is indeed a true σωμα but it is no longer governed by the ψυχη but by the πνευμα; it no longer consists of flesh and blood, it is above the life of sex,

Mt. 22:30, raised above the need for food and drink, 1 Cor. 6:13, and in that even distinguished from the body that man possessed before the fall; it is immortal, imperishable, spiritualized, glorified, 1 Cor. 15:42v., Phil. 3:21.

Also according to Paul [489] the identity of the resurrection body with the body entrusted to the bosom of the earth is therefore independent of the mass of matter and its continual change. All organisms and thus also human bodies indeed always consist of the same substances in kind but not in number. And thus also it is absolutely not necessary for the resurrection body that it should consist precisely of those same atoms in number as those of which it consisted when it was laid in the grave. But for identity it is indeed a requirement that in the resurrection body that same organization and form, that same schema and type, be preserved which here stamped the body as the own body of a particular person. Under the transformations to which all creatures are subject, their identity and continuity are preserved.

The body of man may perish after death and, as to its mass of matter, be converted into all manner of other organisms, there remains on earth something of it that constitutes the substrate of the resurrection body. What that is, we do not know and we can never discover. But what is astonishing about it disappears as soon as we consider that the very last constituent parts of things are completely unknown to us. Every smallest atom is again susceptible of analysis; chemical analysis continues endlessly but never reaches the absolutely simple being. And yet in all organisms and thus also in the human body there must be something that in the continually proceeding transformation retains its identity. What absurdity is there, then,

in assuming that such an "organic basic form," such a "schema of individuality," also remains after the death of the human body, to serve as seed for the body of the resurrection? For this is established according to Scripture, that the body of the resurrection is not brought along from heaven by the blessed or formed out of spiritual, heavenly elements. The body of the resurrection does not come from heaven but from the earth; it is not a self-formed product of pneuma or psyche, but rises up out of the body that at death was laid in the grave; and it is therefore not spiritual in the sense that the pneuma would have as its substance, but it is and remains material, even though that matter is no longer organized into perishable flesh and blood but into a glorified body. Cf. Tertullianus, de resurrectione carnis.

Augustinus, de civ. XXII c. 12-20. Enchir. 84-93. [490] Lombardus, Sent.

IV dist. 43. Thomas, suppl. qu. 82-87. Oswald, Eschat. 262 f. Jansen, Prael.

III 1044. Simar, Dogm. § 168. Gerhard, Loc. XXVI tract. 2. Quenstedt, Theol. IV 576-605. Polanus, Synt. VI c. 66. Synopsis pur. theol., disp. 51.

Mastricht, Theol. VIII 4, 6. Amyraldus, Theses Salm. III 840. Turretinus, Theol. El. XX qu. 1-3. Marck, Exspect. J. C. II c. 1-18. M. Vitringa IV 109156. Kliefoth, Eschat. 248 f. Splittgerber, Tod. Fortleben und Auferstehung3

1879. Nitzsch, Ev. Dogm. 614 f. Art. Auferstehung in Herzog3.

4. After the resurrection follows the judgment, which in the Old Testament is represented as a victory by the Messiah over all the enemies of Israel, but in the New Testament is described more spiritually as a judicial work of Christ, whereby He judges and sentences all men in accordance with the law given to them by God. For Jesus came to earth the first time, not to condemn the world but to save it, Joh. 3:17, 12:47; but nevertheless, at once at his appearance He called a κρισις into life, which has as consequence and as purpose that those who do not see may see and those

who see may become blind, 3:19, 20, 9:39. Jesus continually holds judgment as Son of man, when He already here on earth grants eternal life to those who believe and lets the wrath of God rest upon those who do not believe, 3:36, 5:22-27. There is thus undoubtedly an inward, spiritual judgment; a crisis, which is accomplished from generation to generation; an immanent, diesseitig judgment, which is set up in the consciences of men.

Faith and unbelief already here on earth bring their fruit and their reward with them; just as faith is followed by justification and peace with God, so unbelief leads to continuing darkening and hardening and to surrender to all kinds of unrighteousness. Yes, even outside the antithesis of faith and unbelief, virtue and vice each bear their own fruits; the good and the evil also in natural life have their own reward, not only in the excusing or accusing of the conscience, but also in the outward prosperity or adversity which are often connected with them. Scripture and history moreover teach it as beyond dispute, that blessing and curse, mercy and wrath, favors and judgments alternate with one another in the life [491] of men and of peoples. There lies a great truth in the word of the poet: die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht. But yet in this saying the truth is mixed with the lie. It is conceived not theistically but pantheistically, and undermines all judgment, instead of confirming it and holding it high. For, if world history is the world judgment, it altogether ceases to be a judgment and becomes a natural process, which does not at all concern itself with the tremendous antithesis of good and evil and drives this back into the hidden corner of the conscience, and even there only for a time. For then indeed there is no longer any God, who can make the order of nature subservient to the moral order, but there is nothing other than a natural power, which rules the whole physical world and presently also contracts and causes to disappear that

limited terrain which at first was still conceded for the moral dominion of the good. For the good is no power that can withstand nature, if it does not have its support in an almighty God, who is Creator of both nature and moral order. To be sure, pantheism always again objects against this, that the good must nevertheless be done for its own sake and not out of hope for reward or out of fear of punishment. But the desire of the soul for the triumph of the good, for the victory of justice, has absolutely nothing in common with the selfish wish for earthly happiness and sensual satisfaction. On the contrary, however much Scripture reckons with the fact that man is a sensual being, and holds before him a reward, great in the heavens; that reward is always subordinate to the honor of God's name and, with the good works in which believers walk, acquired by Christ. It is precisely the pious who look with outstretched neck toward that day, in which God glorifies his name before the eyes of all creatures and in their cause makes his own triumph over all opposition. And this desire becomes the stronger, the more the blood that cries for vengeance flows over the earth in broader and deeper stream, the more injustice triumphs, godlessness increases, the lie triumphs and Satan's kingdom expands and exalts itself against the kingdom of righteousness. The whole of history cries out for a world judgment; the whole creation sighs for it; all peoples testify of it; the martyrs in heaven cry for it with a loud voice; the [492] congregation prays for the coming of Christ; and Christ himself, who is the Alpha and the Omega, says: Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me, to repay each one according to his work. However much Scripture therefore, especially in the gospel of John, acknowledges a spiritual judgment running through history, it nevertheless everywhere also speaks of a final judgment, which makes the kingdom of Christ triumph over all

unrighteousness. World history may be a world judgment; the world judgment takes place at the end of days, when Christ comes to judge the living and the dead. More than once Holy Scripture in that connection ascribes the judgment to the Father, Mt. 18:35, 2 Thess. 1:5, Hebr. 11:6,

Jak. 4:12, 1 Petr. 1:17, 2:23, Op. 20:11, 12; but He nevertheless carries out this work through Christ, to whom He has given all judgment, whom He has appointed as Judge, Joh. 5:22, 27, Hd. 10:42, 17:31, Rom. 14:9, and who therefore will one day summon all men before his judgment seat and will judge them according to their works, Mt. 25:32, Rom. 14:9-13, 2 Cor.

5:10, 2 Tim. 4:1, 8, 1 Petr. 4:5, Op. 19:11-21. For Christ is the Son of man, who by his appearance already brought about a crisis, which continues it in history and completes it at the end of days. The relation to Him determines man's eternal weal or woe; in the judgment over living and dead He celebrates his highest triumph and reaches the consummation of his kingdom and the complete subjection of all his enemies. Therefore the principal question in the last judgment is also that concerning faith or unbelief. Faith in Christ is indeed the work of God par excellence, Joh.

6:29, 1 Joh. 3:23. He who believes does not come into the judgment, Joh.

5:24, and he who does not believe is already judged and remains under God's wrath, Joh. 3:18, 36. The standard in the final judgment is thus in the first place the gospel, Joh. 12:48. But that gospel does not stand over against and is not even to be thought of apart from the law; the demand for faith is after all itself already grounded in the law, and the gospel is the restoration and fulfillment of the law. Therefore in the final judgment all the works also come into consideration, which have been performed by men and are recorded in the books before God's face, Pred. 12:14, 2 Cor. 5:10,

Ef. 6:8, 1 Petr. 1:17, Op. 20:12, 22:12. For those works are expressions and

fruits of the principle of life that dwells within in the heart, Mt. 7:17, 12:33,

Luk. 6:44, and [493] include everything that has been done by man, not in the intermediate state, but in his body, not only the deeds, Mt. 25:35v., Mk.

9:41, 42, Luk. 6:35, 14:13, 14, 1 Cor. 3:8, 1, Thess. 4:6 etc., but also the words, Mt. 12:36, and the hidden counsels of the heart, Rom. 2:16, 1 Cor.

4:5; for nothing remains hidden and everything becomes manifest, Mt. 6:4, 6, 18, 10:26, Ef. 5:11-14, 1 Tim. 5:24, 25. The norm is thus in the final judgment the whole word of God, according to its two parts: law and gospel. But in addition Scripture nevertheless says clearly, that account will be taken of the measure of revelation which has fallen to someone's share.

Those who knew the will of the Lord and did not do it, will be beaten with double stripes, Luk. 12:47. It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for Jerusalem and Capernaum, Mt. 10:15, 11:22,

24, Mk. 6:11, Luk. 10:12, 14, Hebr. 2:3. Those who did not hear the gospel are also not judged according to the gospel but according to the law; and the Gentiles, who did not know the Mosaic law but sinned against the law that is known to them by nature, also perish without that Mosaic law, while the Jews are judged precisely by it, Rom. 2:12. Although Scripture lets the judgment go over all men without exception, Mt. 25:32, Hd. 17:31, Rom.

2:6, 14:10, 2 Cor. 5:10, 2 Tim. 4:1, Op. 20:12, it nevertheless in that connection makes a distinction between those nations which have known the gospel and in the end have brought forth antichristendom, and those other peoples which have never heard of Christ and therefore for the first time at his parousie learn of Him, while it further speaks in particular of the judgment over the evil angels, and of the place which the good angels and the believers occupy in the final judgment.

Certainly it takes effort to form a somewhat clear conception of that judgment. Without doubt it does not bear an exclusively inward and spiritual character, so that it would take place only in the conscience of man; but it is definitely a judgment that is also carried out outwardly before the eyes of all creatures. However much image and reality may still flow together, the appearing of Christ, the resurrection, and likewise all that is related of the judgment is drawn too realistically for it to be permissible to spiritualize everything. But then [494] for the holding of this judgment a place and some span of time are also necessary. And Scripture gives us occasion to think that it has a successive course. The angels accompany

Christ at his coming on the clouds, in order to assist him in the execution of the sentence; they gather the righteous, separate the wicked from them, and drive them away from before his face, Mt. 13:30, 49, 24:31. Moreover, He is surrounded by the blessed, 1 Thess. 3:13, 4:16, 2 Thess. 1:10, Jud. 14,

Op. 17:14, 19:14. After then the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the believers who remain alive has taken place, these are caught up together in the clouds, to meet the Lord, in the air, 1 Thess. 4:17.

It is not impossible that, just as with Christ resurrection and ascension fell apart and were even separated from one another by forty days, so also the resurrection or transformation of the believers at the end of days does not at once add to them that full glory which after the renewal of the world in the new heaven or on the new earth will be their portion, Lampe and Gerdes with M. Vitringa IV 143. But however this may be, the resurrection or transformation includes for the believers, just as for Christ, the justification.

It is true that Scripture says that all men without distinction, thus also the believers, must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. But it testifies at the same time that whoever believes is not judged and does not come into

judgment, for he already has eternal life, Joh. 3:18, 5:24; that the deceased believers are already in heaven with Christ and are clothed with long, white garments, 2 Cor. 5:8, Phil. 1:23, Op. 6:11, 7:9, 14; and that Christ comes, to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all who believe, 2 Thess. 1:10.

Before Christ pronounces the sentence over the evil angels, over the antichristian world, and over the cultureless peoples, He has already set the sheep at his right hand and is thronged by his angels and his saints. This is also evident from 1 Cor. 6:2, 4, where Paul expressly says that the saints will judge the world and the angels, M. Vitringa IV 163. For this statement may not be weakened into an approving by the believers of the judgment that Christ passes upon world and angels, but clearly indicates, as the connection shows, that the saints will take part [495] in the judgment over the world and angels. Besides, Jesus already promised to his twelve disciples that they would sit with Him on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Mt. 19:28, Luk. 22:30, and John saw around the throne of God thrones in heaven, occupied by the elders of the church, Op. 4:4, 11:16,

20:4, 6. For Christ and his church are one; what world and angels have done wrong against her, that He counts as if it had been done against Him, Mt.

25:40, 45, Mk. 9:41, 42. Even to the good angels this judgment of Christ and his church extends, 1 Cor. 6:4, for the angels are ministering spirits, who are sent out for service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation and therefore in the future kingdom of God obtain a place according to the service which they have performed in relation to Christ and his church. In the vision of John, therefore, Christ, surrounded by his armies, goes to meet the antichristian power, Op. 19:11-21; the triumphant church shares in his royal dominion, Op. 20:4-6 and finally with Christ puts an end to all resistance, when he judges the peoples who dwell in the four corners of the

earth, Op. 20:7-10. Cf. on the last judgment: Lombardus, Sent. IV dist. 43 sq. Thomas, Suppl. qu. 88-90. Oswald, Eschat. 334f. Atzberger, Die christl.

Eschat. 356-370. Jansen, Prael. III 1062. Simar, Dogm. § 169. Gerhard, Loc. XXVIII. Quenstedt, Theol. IV 605-634. Polanus, Synt. VI c. 69.

Synopsis pur. theol., disp. 51. Mastricht, Theol. VIII 4, 7. Turretinus, Theol.

XX qu. 6. Marck, Exspect. J. C. 1. III c. 1-18. Moor VI 706-718. Kliefoth, Eschat 236f. 275f. Nitzsch, Ev. Dogm. 620f. Art. Gericht in Herzog3.

5. The place to which the ungodly are referred after the judgment bears in the N. Test. the name of gehenna. The Hebr. ֵּגי ִהּנֹום was originally the name of the valley of Hinnom, which lay to the southeast of Jerusalem and according to Jos. 15:8, 18:16 formed the boundary line between two tribes.

Under Ahaz and Manasse this valley became a place for the cult of Moloch, in whose honor children were slaughtered and burned, 2 Kon. 16:3, 21:6, 2

Chr. 28:3, 33:6, Jer. 32:34, 35. Therefore this place was destroyed under Josiah and declared unclean by the priests, 2 Kon. 23:10. Jeremiah prophesied, [496] that here a dreadful bloodbath would be wrought for the Israelites and the name of the valley Tofeth would be changed into that of valley of slaughter, Jer. 7:32, 19:6. And the apocryphal book of Enoch expressed the expectation that in this valley the ungodly would be gathered for the judgment. For this reason later the name Gehinnom was transferred to the place of punishment of the ungodly after death. According to others, however, this transfer had another cause. After the valley of Hinnom had been destroyed by Josiah, it was, according to the later Jews, used for the throwing down and burning of all kinds of uncleanness. Just as Gan Eden indicated the place where after death the righteous sojourned, so Gehinnom became the name of the region to which the unclean and ungodly were referred, in order to suffer punishment there in the eternal fire. Fire,

moreover, had from of old been a revelation and symbol of the wrath and the fury of the Lord. Israel's God is a consuming fire, an eternal glow, Deut.

4:24, 9:3, Jes. 33:14; He spoke to the children of Israel out of the midst of the fire, Deut. 4:12, 33, 5:4, 22-26, 9:10, 10:4, cf. Ex. 3:2; his wrath is a burning fire, going forth from his nose, Ps. 18:9, 79:5, 89:47, Jer. 4:4; fire, going forth from the face of the Lord, consumes the offering, Lev. 9:24; by fire He destroys Nadab and Abihu, Lev. 10:2, the murmurers of the people,

Num. 11:1, Ps. 106:18, the Korahites, Num. 16:35, the bands that are sent against Elijah, 2 Kon. 1:10v.; and in fire He comes once, to execute justice on earth and to punish the ungodly, Deut. 32:22, Ps. 11:6, 83:15, 97:3,

140:11, Jes. 30:33, 31:9, 66:15, 16, 24, Jer. 4:4, 15:14, 17:4, Am. 1:4v., Joel 2:30; and that fire burns down to the lowest Sheol, Deut. 32:22, it is never quenched, Jes. 66:24, and burns eternally, Jer. 17:4. This representation passed over into the New Testament. Gehenna is the place of punishment of the ungodly after the day of judgment, distinguished from ἁδης, φυλακη, ἀβυσσος, above bl. 374, but identical with the καμινος του πυρος, Mt.

13:42, 50 and the λιμνη του πυρος, Op. 19:20, 20:10, 14, 15, 21:8. It is the place destined for the beast from the abyss and for the false prophet, Op.

19:20, for Satan and his angels, Op. 20:10, for death and hades, Op. 20:14, and for all the ungodly, Op. 20:15, 21:8. And these are all cast into it after the [497] resurrection, Mt. 5:29, 30, 10:28, and after the final judgment, Op.

19:20, 20:10, 14, 15, 21:8, while before that time hades, the prison, φυλακη, 1 Petr. 3:19, Op. 20:7 or the abyssus are their dwelling place, and the punishment of the eternal fire or the darkness of darkness is still kept for them, Mt. 8:29, 25:41, 46, 2 Petr. 2:17, Jud. 13. In that gehenna, indeed, the eternal, unquenchable fire burns, Mt. 18:8, Mk. 9:43, 44, 48, the worm gnaws that does not die, Mk. 9:44, 48, and there is an eternal torment, Mt.

25:46, 2 Thess. 1:9, Op. 14:11; it is a γεεννα or καμινος του πυρος, Mt.

5:22, 13:42, 50, 18:9, and at the same time a place of the utmost and outermost darkness, Mt. 8:12, 22:13, 25:30, 2 Petr. 2:17, Jud. 13, cf. Deut.

5:22, Ps. 97:2, 3, lying outside, Op. 22:15, in the depth, so that one is cast into it, Mt. 5:29, 30, Op. 19:20, 20:10, 14, 15, far from the wedding table of the Lamb, Mt. 8:11, 12, 22:13, far from communion with God and with Christ, Mt. 7:23, 25:41, Luk. 13:27, 28, 2 Thess. 1:9, in the company of Satan and his angels, Mt. 25:41, Op. 20:10, 15. The wrath of God reveals itself there in all its terribleness, Rom. 2:5-8, 9:22, 1 Thess. 1:10, Hebr.

10:31, Op. 6:16, 17, so that the gehenna is not only a region of deprivation, but also of pain and torment, both as to soul and as to body, a place of κολασις, Mt. 25:46, Op. 14:10, 11, of κλαυθμος and βρυγμος των ὀδοντων,

Mt. 8:12, 13:42 etc., of θλιψις and στενοχωρια, Rom. 2:9, 2 Thess. 1:6, of ἀπωλεια, Mt. 7:13, Rom. 9:22, Phil. 1:28, 3:19, 2 Petr. 3:7, Op. 17:8, 11, of φθορα, Gal. 6:8, ὀλεθρος, 1 Thess. 5:3, 2 Thess. 1:9, 1 Tim. 6:9; the gehenna is the domain of the second death, Op. 2:11, 20:6, 14, 15, 21:8.

On this firm ground of Scripture the doctrine of the eternity of hellish punishment was built in the Christian church; and theology and preaching, poetry and painting, often vied with one another in plastic description and realistic depiction of the pains which there, in body and soul, were suffered in the eternal fire. But from time to time objections were nevertheless raised against this doctrine. And since the Aufklärung in the previous century caused a milder assessment of sin and crime to arise, abolished the tortureracks, mitigated punishments, and everywhere caused a feeling of humanity to awaken, there also came [498] a wholly different view concerning the punishments of hell, and these were by many either represented in altered form or entirely rejected, Lecky, Gesch. d. Ursprungs und Einflusses der

Aufklärung in Europa, Leipzig 1873 I 259f. The grounds on which the eternity of hellish punishment is contested then always come down to this: a. eternal punishment conflicts with the goodness, the love, the mercy of God and makes Him into a tyrant who takes pleasure in plaguing and tormenting and prepares praise for himself out of the eternal groaning of millions of unhappy creatures. b. Eternal punishment conflicts with the justice of God, because it has no connection with and is not proportionate to the sin, which, however dreadful, nevertheless always bears a limited, finite character. It is not to be conceived that God, who is perfect love and the highest justice, will punish a child of man, even if it had sinned a thousand years, with an everlasting tormenting. c. Such an eternal punishment is also unimaginable and unthinkable. Scripture speaks of fire and worm and darkness, but these are all images; taken literally, they would exclude one another. But apart from that, what is the value of an eternal punishment that has no other purpose than to torment the sinner eternally? What usefulness has it for him who undergoes it, since it by its nature must exclude true repentance and continually causes him to go on sinning? What honor does it bring to God's name, if it does not overcome and destroy sin but perpetuates it and causes it to endure eternally? And how is it possible that the lost under such an eternal punishment continually harden themselves, without ever coming to repentance and humbling themselves before God? d. Scripture, then, also does not teach an eternal, endless punishment in hell.

Indeed it speaks of eternal pain etc., but eternal there, as elsewhere, does not have the meaning of endless, but denotes a duration of time whose boundary eludes observation or calculation; αιωνιος is what goes beyond a longer or shorter αἰων. This is further strengthened by the fact that αἰωνιος, in bonam partem of the goods of salvation, e.g. of life, is used especially to

indicate an inner quality, by which all these goods of salvation are presented as elevated above perishability. Over against that, the condition of the lost is designated as ἀπωλεια, φθορα, ὀλεθρος, θανατος, which points to the fact that they thus cannot remain in existence eternally but are either utterly

[499] destroyed or once wholly and entirely restored. e. For the latter Scripture offers hope, when it teaches that Christ is a reconciliation for the sins of the whole world, 1 Joh. 2:2, Col. 1:19, 20, and that God in that way wills the salvation of all, 1 Tim. 2:4, 4:10. As all men die in Adam, so are they also all made alive in Christ, 1 Cor. 15:22, Rom. 5:18. Now God gathers all things together under Christ as head, Ef. 1:10, in order that once every knee may bow before Christ, Phil. 2:10, and God may be all in all, 1

Cor. 15:28. God has shut up all under sin, in order that He might be merciful to all, Rom. 11:32.

On these considerations, then, concerning the end of the ungodly, if we disregard pantheism and materialism, which deny all immortality and eternity, the following three hypotheses are built. First, there are those who teach that a possibility of conversion remains open, not only in the intermediate state up to the final judgment, above p. 382, but also thereafter and into all eternity. Whether, therefore, there is a hell and an eternal punishment depends entirely on man and on his free will. If he continually resists the call to conversion, he entangles himself ever more firmly and deeply in sin and prolongs his punishment. But since the preaching of faith and conversion never ceases and the will of man always remains free, the possibility of an eternal punishment in hell becomes very improbable, and one rather flatters oneself with the hope that in the end all will come to conversion and enter into eternal life. Eternal pain in Scripture thus signifies only that those who convert so late always retain the memory of

their stubborn resistance and, compared with those who in this life believed the gospel, will eternally remain behind. This hypothetical universalism thus amounts to a continual purification and is a renewal of the doctrine of transmigration of souls. The difference is only that metempsychosis lets this purification take place in the Diesseits, whereas hypothetical universalism places it in the Jenseits. This doctrine found acceptance especially in the previous century among the Rationalists, but is also at present defended by many theologians, cf. Wegscheider, Instit. § 200. Bretschneider, Dogm. II 468 f. 581 f. Reinhard, Dogm. 706 f. Lange, Posit. Dogm. § 131. Dorner,

Gl. II 972. [500] Nitzsch, Ev. Dogm. 624. W. Schmidt, Christl. Dogm. II 517. Saussaye, my Theol. van Ch. d. l. S. 71-75. H. Ernst, Faith and Freedom 1886 pp. 407-444. Furthermore in England the proponents of the so-called future (second) probation or of the wider hope, such as Robertson,

Maurice, Theol. Essays 1853 p. 442: the word eternal and the punishment of the wicked. Thomas de Quincey, On the supposed scriptural expression for eternity 1852. Tennyson, In Memoriam. Farrar, Eternal Hope 1878 and Mercy and Judgment 1881 with the literature called forth by these two works, cf. The wider hope, essays and strictures on the doctrine and literature of future punishment by numerous writers, lay and clerical,

London Unwin 1890. In America the defenders of the Andover position, adopted by the five professors of Andover College, Churchhill, Harris,

Hincks, Tucker and Egb. C. Smith, who deviated from various articles of the confession, also from that concerning eternal punishment, cf. Andover

Review April 1890 p. 434 etc. Of itself this opinion of a continuing conversion and purification leads to the doctrine of the so-called universalists, who think that at the end all creatures will become partakers of salvation and glory. What is desired and hoped for there is here certainly

expected and proclaimed as dogma. The doctrine of the return of all things into God already occurs in Indian and Greek philosophy, passed from there over into Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, and was then first advanced in Christian theology by Origen. He does indeed speak repeatedly of an eternal punishment in hell, but nevertheless sees in it only a practical doctrine, which is necessary for the undeveloped, but is understood quite differently by the gnostics. According to Origen, however, all spirits are originally created equal by God, but the acts of the free will bring inequality and cause the souls of men, for purification, to be transferred into a material world and bound to bodies. But this purification also continues after death and after the final judgment, until out of and through the greatest possible diversity the equality again appears, and all spirits return again to God in that same state in which they originally had fellowship with Him. But because the free will always remains the same, it can just as well as return from evil [501] to good, so again return from good to evil, and thus there is a continual alternation of falling away and restoration of all things, an endless creation and destruction of the material world, cf. Atzberger, Gesch. der christl. Eschat. 1896 S. 366-456. This thought of the restoration of all things found an echo in antiquity in Gregory Naz., Gregory Nyss.,

Didymus, Diodorus of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and others, cf.

Petavius, de angelis III 7. 8, in the Middle Ages in Scotus Erigena, Amalric of Bena and the brothers and sisters of the free spirit, after the Reformation in Denck and many Anabaptists, in Jane Leade, J. W. Petersen, Ludwig

Gerhard, F. C. Oetinger, Michael Hahn, Jung-Stilling, Swedenborg etc., and in more recent times in Schleiermacher, Chr. Gl. § 117-120 and § 163

Appendix. Schweizer, Gl. II 577 f. 591. 604. Schoeberlein, Prinzip und System der Dogm. 679. Riemann, Die Lehre von der Apokatastasis2

Magdeburg 1897. Scholten, Initia 268 sq. W. Francken, Faith and Freedom 1886. Cf. Köstlin, art. Apokatastasis in Herzog3. Much greater assent, however, was found by a third opinion, which is known under the name of conditional immortality. Although earlier theology very often spoke of immortality in a spiritual sense, as a gift acquired by Christ, yet almost no one therefore thought of denying the natural immortality of the soul. The Socinians were the first, under the influence of their abstract supranaturalism, to teach that souls were not immortal by nature but became so only in the case of obedience through a gift of God. From that it followed that the ungodly and the devils, by virtue of a natural perishability, would once have to cease to exist. Socinus did not yet express this so clearly, but his followers taught without circumlocution that the second death consisted in annihilation; and this then, according to Crell, Schmalz and others, did not take place at or soon after death, but only after the general resurrection and the judgment of the world, Fock, Der Socin. 714 f.

From the Socinians this doctrine was taken over by Locke, Warburton, Whiston, Dodwell, Walter and others, and in this century by Rothe, Theol.

Ethik § 470-472 and Weisse, Ueber die philos. Bedeutung der christl.

Eschat. Stud. u. Krit. 1836. Above all, however, it began to make headway and to find adherents since it was defended in 1885 by [502] Edward White in his Life in Christ, a study of the Scripture doctrine on the nature of man, the object of the divine incarnation and the conditions of human immortality, 3 ed. Stock London 1878. This book set many pens in motion and elicited not only serious opposition but also manifold expressions of assent. Everywhere conditionalism now finds numerous defenders, such as e.g. Schultz, Voraussetzungen der christl. Lehre von der Unsterblichkeit

1861. H. Plitt, Evang. Glaubenslehre 1863. II 413. Weisse, Philos. Dogm. §

970.

Lemme, Endlosigkeit der Verdammnis und allgemeine Wiederbringung, Lichterfelde-Berlin, Runge. (lecture, delivered 12 Aug.

1898). Charles Byse, L'immortalité conditionelle ou la vie en Christ, Paris 1880. Petavel-Olliff, Le problème de l'immortalité, Paris 1891. Dr. Jonker,

The doctrine of condit. immortality, Theol. Stud. I.

6. If now, in the doctrine of eternal punishment, human feeling had to decide, it would certainly be difficult to maintain and would now also find only few defenders. It ought to be gratefully acknowledged that since the previous century the idea of humanity and the feeling of sympathy have powerfully awakened and have put an end to the cruelty which formerly prevailed, especially also in the sphere of criminal law. But no one can be blind to the fact that this humanitarian view also brings with it its onesidednesses and dangers. The mighty reversal that has taken place can in this respect be described in this one sentence, that, whereas formerly the insane were even treated as criminals, now the criminals are regarded as insane. Formerly, in every abnormality guilt was seen; now all concepts of guilt, crime, responsibility, imputability, etc. are deprived of their reality, cf.

Simons, Nieuwe richtingen in de strafrechtwetenschap, Gids April 1900 bl.

48-84. The consciousness of right and justice, of transgression of the law and guilt is weakened in a questionable way, in proportion as the standard of all these things is shifted not in God but in man and in society.

Therewith, gradually all certainty and security are lost. For if the interest of society gives the decisive weight, then not only is every boundary between good and evil erased, but right also runs the danger of being sacrificed to power. It is expedient for you, [503] that one man die for the people and not the whole people perish, Joh. 11:50, then becomes the language of the highest administration of justice. And the same human feeling that first

pleaded for the humanitarian treatment of the criminal does not shrink from soon demanding the death by torture of the innocent; the hosanna makes room for him for the cross; the vox populi, which is often wrongly honored as a vox Dei, recoils from no horrors; and while the righteous still takes account of how his cattle are doing, even the inward parts, the heart, the mind of the godless is still cruel, Spr. 12:10. Therefore little can be built on human feeling; it may and can in the determination of right and law not give the decision; even if the appearance is against it, it is nevertheless infinitely much better to fall into the hand of the Lord than into that of men,

1 Chron. 21:13. And this also holds with the doctrine of the eternal punishments in hell. For 1o it deserves notice that this doctrine, however much it has often been worked out far too realistically in church and theology, is nevertheless grounded in Scripture. And no one speaks of it in Scripture more often and more extensively than our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom no one can deny depth of human feeling and compassion, and who was the meekest and most humble among all the children of men. It is the highest love that threatens with the heaviest punishments. Over against the blessedness of eternal life, which He acquired for His own, stands the misery of eternal perdition, which He announces to the godless. Both were in the Old Test. veiled in shadows and were presented under images. But in the New Test. it is Christ who opens the vista both into the depths of the outer darkness and into the dwellings of the eternal light. 2o That the punishment in this place of the outer darkness is an eternal one cannot be doubted with Scripture in hand. It is true, αἰωνιος (from αἰων, hebr. עולם, i.e. duration of time, duration of life, course of life, human lifetime, indefinitely long time in past or future; the present world-age, αἰων οὑτος; the coming age, αἰων μελλων) very often indicates a duration of time that

indeed surpasses human calculation but is absolutely not endless or eternal.

Often it is also still used in the N. T. of the whole world-age that has passed up to the appearing of Christ, in which the counsel of God was proclaimed by the prophets but nevertheless was not fully revealed, Luk. 1:70, Hd.

3:21, Rom. 16:25, Col. 1:26, 2 Tim. 1:9, Tit. 1:2. But the word αἰωνιος serves in the N. T. especially to denote the incorruptible nature of the salvific benefits acquired by Christ, elevated above all corruption and destruction, and is then in particular very often connected with ζωη; the eternal life that Christ gives to everyone who believes has its beginning already here on earth but nevertheless becomes fully manifest only in the future; it belongs essentially to the αἰων μελλων, Luk. 18:30, is incorruptible, Joh. 11:25, 26, and is called eternal, just like the οἰκοδομη ἐκ θεου, 2 Cor. 5:1, the σωτηρια, Hebr. 5:9, the λυτρωσις, 9:12, the κληρονομια, 9:15, the δοξα, 2 Tim. 2:10, the βασιλεια, 2 Petr. 1:11, just as God, Christ, the H. Spirit are also called eternal, Rom. 16:26, Hebr. 9:14,

13:8 etc. Over against that it is said that the punishment of the godless will consist in το πυρ το αἰωνιον; Mt. 18:8, 25:41, Jud. 7, κολασις αἰωνιος, Mt.

25:46, ὀλεθρος αἰωνιος, 2 Thess. 1:9, κρισις αἰωνιος, Mk. 3:29. Just like eternal life, by this description eternal punishment is presented as belonging to the αἰων μελλων, in which no change of state is any longer possible.

Nowhere does Scripture indicate with any word or even leave open the possibility that the condition that enters there could still come to an end.

And positively it declares that the fire there is unquenchable, Mt. 3:12, that the worm does not die, Mk. 9:44, that the smoke of the torment goes up unto all eternity, Op. 14:11, and continues day and night unto all eternity,

20:10, and that it as eternal torment stands over against the eternal life of the righteous, Mt. 25:46. Unprejudiced exegesis can find here nothing other

than an eternal punishment that never ends. Cf. Cremer s. v. 3o The condition of the lost is described as ἀπωλεια, Mt. 7:13, φθορα. Gal. 6:8, ὀλεθρος, 2 Thess. 1:9, θανατος, Op. 2:11 etc., in accordance with the fact that in O. and N. Test. it is often said that the godless will be destroyed, exterminated, devastated, corrupted, done away with, cast out, cut off, burned like chaff, etc. The advocates of conditional immortality understand all these expressions in the sense of a complete annihilation, cf. White, Life in Christ 358-390. But this view lacks [505] all ground. Life in Scripture never means pure existence, and death is never the same as annihilation. Of the temporal, bodily death the conditionalists also cannot deny this; they mostly assume, like the Socinians, that the godless also after death continue to exist, either in order first after resurrection and final judgment to be annihilated by God, or in order gradually to die away and finally also physically to perish. The latter is both philosophically and Scripturally an impossible thought. Sin, after all, is no substance, no materia but forma, which presupposes a being and does not annihilate that being but directs it in a wrong direction turned away from God, part III 81v. And bodily death is not merely a natural consequence but a positive punishment threatened and executed by God upon sin, ib. 176v. In that death God does not annihilate man, but He separates soul and body temporarily from one another, in order to preserve both and at the resurrection to unite them again. Scripture teaches clearly and incontrovertibly the immortality of man. Conditionalism confuses the ethical with the physical being, when it sees in ἀπωλεια, which is the punishment of sin, an annihilation of the substance of man. And just as God in the first death does not annihilate man, so He also does not do this in the second death. For this is also described in Scripture as torment, Mt. 25:46, weeping and gnashing of

teeth, Mt. 8:12, tribulation and distress, Rom. 2:9, unquenchable fire, Mt.

18:8, worm that never dies, Mk. 9:44 etc., which expressions all presuppose the existence of the lost. But their condition can nevertheless be called ἀπωλεια, φθορα, ὀλεθρος, θανατος, because in moral, spiritual sense they have wholly gone to ruin and in absolute sense lack that fullness of life which is bestowed upon believers by Christ. Thus the prodigal son is called νεκρος and ἀπολωλος, Luk. 15:24, 32, the Ephesians in their former condition νεκροι in their sins and trespasses, Ef. 2:3, alienated from the life of God, Ef. 4:18, those of Sardis νεκροι, Op. 3:1 etc., without anyone here thinking of their non-existence. 4o Of the same misunderstanding of the ethical character of sin the advocates of the apokatastasis are guilty. The word is borrowed from Hd. 3:21 but there, as everyone now acknowledges, it absolutely does not contain what is now meant by it. Scripture nowhere teaches that once all men and even all devils will be saved. It does indeed often speak very universalistically, because the work of Christ is intensively of infinite value and benefits the whole world and humanity in its organic existence, part III 390v. But it decisively excludes that all individuals among men or even the devils would once become citizens in the kingdom of God. At all times the doctrine of the restoration of all things has therefore been taught only by a few isolated persons, and even today among theologians conditionalism rather than apokatastasis finds advocacy. In fact this doctrine is also not of Christian but of pagan origin, and it bears not a Scriptural but a philosophical character. It is pantheism that lies at its foundation and causes all things, just as they proceed from God, so also successively to return to Him. God here is no Lawgiver and Judge, who will once judge the world in righteousness, but an unconscious, immanent force that drives everything forward to the end and once draws everything back

into itself. Sin here is no ἀνομια, but a necessary moment in the development of the world. And redemption in Christ is no juridical restoration and no ethical renewal but a physical process that governs everything. 5o In order therefore to justify eternal punishment it is necessary before all things that one, with Scripture, acknowledge the incorruptible righteousness of God and the deeply sinful character of sin.

Sin is no weakness, no defect, no temporary and gradually disappearing imperfection, but according to its origin and essence it is ἀνομια, transgression of the law, rebellion and enmity against God, negation of His right, of His authority, even of His existence. Sin is indeed finite in the sense that it is committed by a finite creature in a finite time, but Augustine already rightly remarked that not the duration of time in which the sin is committed but its inner nature is the standard of its punishment. An hour of thoughtlessness can make one weep for years. Upon sins of a single moment follows a whole life of shame and punishment. Whoever commits a crime is sometimes punished with death and by the earthly authority transferred into an irreparable condition. Thus God also does; for what on earth is the death penalty is the punishment of hell in the [507] final judgment. He judges and punishes sin according to its inner quality. And then sin is infinite in the sense that it is committed against the highest

Majesty, who has an absolute right to our love and our veneration. God is worthy of our obedience and devotion in an absolute, infinite way; the law in which He demands these is therefore absolutely binding, its bindingness infinitely great; and the transgression of that law is thus, considered intensively, an absolute, an infinite evil. Moreover, here not so much the diuturnitas peccandi comes into consideration as the voluntas peccantis, quae hujusmodi est ut semper vellet peccare si posset, Aug. de civ. 21, 11.

Whoever does sin is a servant of sin and will and can do nothing other than sin. It truly does not lie with him if he is placed outside the opportunity to continue on the sinful way; according to his inner desire he would want nothing other than to live eternally in order to be able to sin eternally. Who then, attending to this sinful nature of sin, would dare to say that God is unrighteous if He visits it not only with temporal but also with eternal punishments? 6o Commonly this argument, derived from the righteousness of God, is therefore also advanced only timidly and hesitantly. All the more is eternal punishment regarded as in conflict with the goodness and the love of God. If, however, it is not in conflict with the righteousness of God, then it is also not and even cannot be with His goodness. There is here no choice.

If eternal punishment is unrighteous, then it is thereby judged and the goodness of God no longer needs to be brought into it. If, however, it corresponds to God's righteousness, then the goodness of God remains thereby unharmed; what is righteous is also good. The argument, derived from God's goodness against eternal punishment, thus in the track of Marcion secretly introduces a conflict between God's righteousness and His goodness and sacrifices the former to the latter. A goodness, however, that nullifies righteousness is no true, essential goodness any more. It is nothing other than human weakness and softness, and, transferred to God, a fabrication of the human brain, in no way corresponding to the living, true

God, who has revealed Himself in Scripture and also in nature. For if eternal [508] punishment is incompatible with God's goodness, then so is temporal punishment. But this is a fact that can be denied by no one.

Humanity perishes under God's wrath and by His indignation it is terrified.

Who can reconcile the suffering of the world with God's goodness and love? Yet it must be able to be brought into agreement with it, for it exists.

If now the existence of the dreadful suffering in this world may not make us doubt God's goodness, then eternal punishment also may not lead us to its denial. If this world is compatible with God's love, as it is and must be, then so is hell. For outside Holy Scripture there is no stronger proof for the existence of hell than the existence of this world, from whose misery the features of the image of hell have been borrowed. 7o Moreover, for the man who combats eternal punishment there exists great danger of playing the hypocrite over against God. He presents himself as the loving one, who in goodness and compassion far surpasses the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That does not prevent that same man, as soon as his honor is assailed, from flaring up in rage and wishing all evil upon his insulter in this and in the coming life. Envy, hatred, anger, vindictiveness arise in the heart of every man against everyone who stands in his way. We seek our own honor, but for the honor of God we do not care; we stand up for our own right, but the right of God we let be trampled underfoot. That is truly a conclusive proof that man is not the suitable judge of the words and the actions of God. And yet, also in that standing up for one's own right and honor there lies something good. However wrongly man may apply it, there nevertheless lies in it that right and honor go above good and life. There slumbers also in the sinner still a deep sense of right and honor. And when that is assailed, it awakens and suppresses all compassion. When in a struggle between two men or between two peoples it is about right, then each prays with all his heart that God let right triumph and strike the violators of it with His judgment. All men still sense something of the fiat justitia, pereat mundus, and approve it that right triumph at the cost of thousands of human lives. It is also about right in the day of judgment, and not about some private right, but about right par excellence, [509] about right in its whole meaning and in

its full extent, about the righteousness of God, about God Himself to be praised as God unto eternity. 8o There is therefore also no doubt that God will in the day of judgment, even when He pronounces eternal punishment over the sinners, fully justify Himself before the eyes of all creatures. Now we know in part and also know the horribleness of sin only in part. But if we already here, upon hearing of certain atrocities, do not consider the heaviest punishment heavy enough, what will it then be when at the end of days we receive an insight into the depths of unrighteousness? And besides, we are here on earth always one-sided; sense of right and compassion repeatedly come into conflict; we are either too soft or far too strict in our judgment. But thus it is not and cannot be with the Lord our God. In Christ

He has revealed His full love, and that love is therefore so great because it has bestowed a redemption from the coming wrath and from eternal perdition. The opponents of eternal punishment not only do injustice to the damnableness of sin, to the strictness of the divine right; they also infringe upon the greatness of God's love and of the redemption that is in Christ. If it had not been about the rescue from an eternal perdition, the price of the blood of God's own Son would have been far too dear. The heaven that He acquired for us by His atoning death presupposes a hell from which He delivered us. The eternal life that He bestowed upon us presupposes an eternal death from which He has redeemed us. The favor and the good pleasure of God, in which He causes us to share eternally, presupposes a wrath under which we otherwise would have had to sink eternally. And therefore this Christ also will once hold judgment and pronounce the sentence. A man, a true, perfect man, who knows what is in man, who is the meekest of all men, will be the judge of men, so righteous that all will acknowledge it and every knee will bow before Him and every tongue will

confess that Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father. God will at the end, if not willingly, then unwillingly, be acknowledged as God by all creatures. 9o This must be enough for us. Investigations about the location and size of hell, about the nature of fire and worm, about the psychic and the physical condition of the lost lead to no result, [510] because Scripture keeps silence about it. Only this we still know, that the punishment of hell first begins after the day of judgment, that it is always threatened to those who stubbornly resist the truth of God, to the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters and liars, Op. 21:8, and that it even then still differs according to the measure of each one's unrighteousness. Nowhere does Scripture teach that there is then still room for repentance and forgiveness. The addition in Mt. 12:32: neither in this age nor in the coming, does not serve to extend the forgivability of the sin against the Son of man also still in the coming age, but to set in the light the absolute unforgivability of the sin against the H. Spirit.

Punishment is in its essence maintenance of righteousness and serves, specifically after the judgment, not to purify but to repay each one according to his work. But nevertheless Scripture teaches very clearly that there are degrees in that punishment; the poena damni is equal, but the poena sensus differs; each one receives according to his works, Mt. 10:15,

11:24, 23:14, 24:51, Luk. 10:12, 14, 12:46, 47, 2 Cor. 5:10 etc. And therein still something of God's mercy is expressed, part II 362. 365. All sin stands absolutely over against righteousness, but nevertheless God in the punishment takes account of the relative difference that exists between the sins. Even if therefore, with Augustine, Enchir. 110, cf. Lombardus,

Thomas, Bonaventura on Sent. IV 46, it is not conceded, poenas damnatorum certis temporum intervallis aliquatenus mitigari, nevertheless

His righteousness in eternal punishment shows itself in such a way that His goodness and love remain uninjured and can never lawfully be accused.

Also in hell the word holds that He does not afflict men from the heart, Klaagl. 3:33; the pain that He sends is no object of His or of the blessed' delight, but a means to the glorification of His virtues and thus by this final end determined in its heaviness and its measure. Cf. Augustinus, Enchir.

110-113. de civ. XXI. Lombardus e. a. on Sent. IV 46-50. Thomas, S.

Theol. suppl. qu. 97-99. Dante, De Hel. Petavius, Theol. dogm. t. IV de angelis III c. 4-8. Simar, Dogm. § 163. Jansen, Prael. III 946-975. Bautz,

Die Hölle, Mainz 1882. Sachs, Die ewige Dauer der Höllenstrafen, Paderborn 1900. Gerhard, Loc. IX tract. 5 and [511] Loc. XXX. Quenstedt,

Theol. I 560-565. Vilmar, Dogm. II 323. Philippi, Kirchl. Gl. III 389.

Kähler, Art. Höllenstrafen in Herzog3. Limborch, Theol. Christ. VI 13.

Calvijn, Inst. III 25, 12. Synopsis pur. theol. disp. 52. Turretinus, Theol. El.

XX qu. 7. Marck, Exspect. J. Chr. III c. 12. 13. Moor III 354-358. VI 798.

M. Vitringa IV 175 II 305. 320. J. A. Turretinus, Op. II 612. Swinden, An inquiry into the nature and place of hell. Lond. 1727. Jon. Edwards, Works,

New-York 1881 I 612-642 IV 254-321. Id. Plea for the eternity of punishments in a future life, Utrecht 1792. Hodge, Syst. Theol. III 818.

Shedd, Dogm. Theol. II 667. Oosterzee, Dogm. § 149.

7. After the final judgment follows the renewal of the world. Some, with Thomas, S. Theol. suppl. qu. 74 art. 7, have indeed placed this before the last judgment, but the common representation is nevertheless this, that it follows upon it and then first enters, when the godless have already been banished from the earth. Undoubtedly this order also corresponds most with that in Holy Scripture. In the Old Test. the day of the Lord is indeed preceded by all kinds of dreadful signs and the judgment over the nations

takes place amid all kinds of terrible events, but the new earth with its extraordinary fertility then first begins, when the victory over the enemies has been achieved and the people of Israel has returned to its land and has been restored. Likewise, according to the New Test., many signs precede the day of judgment, such as darkening of sun and moon and stars, movement of the powers of heaven, etc., Mt. 24:29, but the burning of the earth nevertheless takes place only on the day of the Lord, 2 Petr. 3:10, and thereafter then comes the new heaven and the new earth, in which righteousness dwells, 2 Petr. 3:13. When the judgment has been carried out,

John sees the new Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven, Op.

21:1v. With this expectation of a renewal of the world, Scripture takes a standpoint between two extremes. On the one hand it has been asserted by many, such as Plato, Aristotle, Xenophanes, Philo, Maimonides, Averroes,

Nolanus, Peyrère, Edelmann, Czolbe etc., that this world would continue eternally in its present form. And on the other hand Origen, the Lutherans, the Mennonites, the Socinians, Vorstius, the Remonstrants and [512] also some Reformed, such as Beza, Rivetus, Junius, Wollebius, Prideaux, were of the opinion that it would not only be changed in form but destroyed in substance and replaced by an entirely new world, M. Vitringa IV 194-200.

But neither of these two opinions finds support in Scripture. Oldtest. prophecy expects an extraordinary change in the whole of nature but nevertheless teaches no destruction of the present world. The passages in which one thinks this latter is taught, Ps. 102:27, Jes. 34:4, 51:6, 16, 65:17,

66:22, do indeed describe the change which will enter after the day of the Lord in very strong terms, but nevertheless do not include a destruction of the world's substance. For in the first place the description which is given there is far too figurative for a literal reductio ad nihilum of the whole

world to be able to be derived from it. Further, the passing away, אבד, of heaven and earth, Ps. 102:27, which in itself already never indicates an absolute destruction of the substance, is explained by this, that they will grow old like a garment, be changed like a robe, fall off like a leaf, vanish like smoke, Ps. 102:27, Jes. 34:4, 51:6. And finally the word create, ברא, which is used of the new heaven and the new earth, Jes. 65:17, by no means always indicates a bringing forth out of nothing, but often denotes such an activity of God by which He causes something new to come forth out of the old, Jes. 41:20, 43:7, 54:16, 57:19; therefore it also alternates with plant, found, make, Jes. 51:16, 66:22, and the Lord can say in Jes. 51:16, that He begins that new creation with this, that He puts his word in Israel's mouth and covers it with the shadow of his hand. The New Test. in the same way proclaims that heaven and earth will pass away, Mt. 5:18, 24:35, 2 Petr.

3:10, 1 Joh. 2:17, Op. 21:1, that they will perish, and grow old like a garment, Hebr. 1:11, be dissolved, 2 Petr. 3:11, be burned, 2 Petr. 3:10, be changed, Hebr. 1:12. But none of these expressions includes a destruction of the substance. For Peter expressly teaches that the old earth, which arose by separation of the waters, perished by the water of the flood, 2 Petr. 3:6, and that the present world likewise, although by virtue of God's promise no longer by water, nevertheless by fire [513] will perish. A destruction of the substance in the perishing of the present world is therefore just as little to be thought of as in the destruction of the former world in the flood; fire burns, cleanses, purifies but does not destroy. The contrast in 1 Joh. 2:17: he who does the will of God remains unto eternity, teaches that with the words: the world passes away with its lust, there is not meant a destruction of the substance of the world, but a disappearance of the world in its form devastated by sin. Paul therefore also says very clearly that the form, το

σχημα, of this world passes away, 1 Cor. 7:31. Moreover, such a renewal of the world alone accords with what Scripture teaches about redemption. This is, after all, never a second, new creation, but a re-creation of what exists.

Therein consists precisely God's honor, that He redeems and renews the same humanity, the same world, the same heaven and the same earth, which were corrupted and defiled by sin. As a human being in Christ is a new creature, with whom the old has passed away and all has become new, 2

Cor. 5:17, so also this world in its present form passes away, in order, at the mighty word of God, out of its womb to give to a new world its appearance.

As with the individual human being, so at the end of days there also takes place with the world a regeneration, Mt. 19:28, which is no physical creation but a spiritual renewal. Cf. Thomas, S. Theol. Suppl. qu. 74 art. 1 and qu. 91. Atzberger, Die christl. Eschat. 372 f. Gomarus, Op. I 131-133.

416. Spanheim, Dubia Evang. III 670-712. Turretinus, Th. El. XX qu. 5.

Moor VI 733-736. M. Vitringa IV 186-215. Kliefoth, Eschat. 297 f.

8. This renewal of the visible world brings to light the one-sidedness of spiritualism, which restricts future blessedness to heaven. In Old Testament prophecy there can be no doubt that it describes blessedness as an earthly one; it expects that the people of God after the great day will dwell in safety and peace under the anointed king from David's house in Palestine and will be surrounded and served by the heathen nations. There is truth in the words of Delitzsch on Isa. 66:24: Das ist ja eben der Unterschied des A. und N. T., dass das [514] A. T. das Jenseits verdiesseitigt, das N. T. das Diesseits verjenseitigt; dass das A. T. das Jenseits in den Gesichtskreis des Diesseits herabzieht, das N. T. das Diesseits in das Jenseits emporhebt. But yet they do not allow the N. T. expectation of future blessedness to come fully into its own. There is in the N. Test. undoubtedly a spiritualization of Old

Testament prophecy; because Jesus' coming falls apart into a first and a second, the kingdom of God is first planted in a spiritual sense in the heart of men; and the goods of that kingdom are all inward and invisible, forgiveness, peace, righteousness, eternal life. Correspondingly, the essence of future blessedness is also conceived more spiritually, especially by Paul and John, as a being always with the Lord, Joh. 12:26, 14:3, 17:24, 2 Cor.

5:8, Phil. 1:23, 1 Thess. 4:17, 5:10, 1 Joh. 3:2. But yet that blessedness is not thereby shut up within heaven. That this cannot be the case is shown in principle already from this, that the N. T. teaches the incarnation of the Word and the bodily resurrection of Christ, expects at the end of days his bodily return, and immediately thereafter has the bodily resurrection of all men, and in particular that of believers, take place. All this overturns the spiritualism which, if it remained faithful to its principle, like Origen after the day of judgment might leave nothing but spirits in an uncreated heaven.

Scripture, however, teaches quite otherwise. According to it the world consists of heaven and earth, man of soul and body, and accordingly the kingdom of God also has a spiritual, hidden and an outward, visible side.

While Jesus has come the first time in order to found that kingdom in a spiritual sense, he returns at the end of days in order to give it also a visible form. The reformation proceeds from within to without; the rebirth of men is completed in the rebirth of creation; the kingdom of God is then only fully realized when it is also visibly extended over the earth. Thus the disciples also understood it, when after his resurrection they asked Jesus whether he would now restore the kingdom to Israel. And Jesus in his answer to that question does not deny that he will once establish such a kingdom, but only says that the times for that have been fixed by the Father and that his disciples [515] now have the calling to be his witnesses in the

power of the H. Spirit unto the uttermost part of the earth, Hd. 1:6-8.

Elsewhere he testifies expressly that the meek shall inherit the earth, Mt.

5:5, and he represents future blessedness as a meal, where one sits at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Mt. 8:11, enjoys food and drink, Luk.

22:30, eats of the new, perfect passover, Luk. 22:16, and drinks of the fruit of the new vine, Mt. 26:29. Indeed in this dispensation, up to the parousia, the eye of believers is directed upward, toward heaven. There is their treasure, Mt. 6:20, 19:21; there is Jesus, who is their life, seated at the right hand of God, Joh. 14:3, 17:24, Col. 3:1-3; there is their citizenship, while they are strangers here, Phil. 3:20, Hebr. 11:13-16; there the inheritance is kept for them, Hebr. 10:34, 1 Petr. 1:4. But that inheritance is destined to be revealed. Christ once comes back visibly, and then in his glory causes the whole congregation, indeed the whole world, to share. Believers are not only changed into his image, Joh. 17:24, Rom. 8:17, 18, 28, Phil. 3:21, Col.

3:4, 1 Joh. 3:2, but the whole creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God, Rom. 8:21; earth and heaven are thus renewed, so that righteousness dwells in it, 2 Petr.

3:13, Op. 21:1; the heavenly Jerusalem, which is now above and was the pattern of the earthly Jerusalem, then descends to earth, Gal. 4:26, Hebr.

11:10, 13-16, 12:22, 13:14, Op. 3:12, 21:2v. This new Jerusalem is not identical with the church, although it can also figuratively be called the bride of the Lamb, Op. 21:2, 9, for Hebr. 12:22, 23 makes very clearly a distinction between the heavenly Jerusalem and the church of the firstborn

(pious of the O. T.) and of the perfected righteous (departed Christians). The heavenly Jerusalem is a city, built by God himself, Hebr. 11:10; it is the city of the living God, because God is not only its builder but also himself dwells in it, Op. 21:3; the angels are therein the servants and form the court

retinue of the great King, Hebr. 12:22; the blessed are therein the citizens, Op. 21:27, 22:3, 4. The description which John gives of that Jerusalem, Op.

21 and 22, may certainly no more than his preceding visions be taken literally; this is already excluded by the fact that John represents it as a cube, of which length, breadth and height are equal, namely 12000 stadia, i.e. 300 German miles, while the height of the wall is yet only 144 cubits,

Op. 21:15-17. John does not mean by his description a drawing of the city, but he gives thoughts and interprets them in images, because the glory of the kingdom of God cannot be brought to our consciousness in any other way. And those images he borrows from paradise, with its river and tree of life, Op. 21:6, 22:1, 2, from the earthly Jerusalem with its gates and streets,

Op. 21:12v., from the temple with its holy of holies, in which God himself dwelt, Op. 21:3, 22, from the whole realm of nature with all its treasures of gold and precious stones, Op. 21:11, 18-21. But although they are thoughts which in that way are interpreted by images, those thoughts are nevertheless not imaginations or fictions but this-worldly descriptions of other-worldly realities. All that is true, all that is noble, all that is righteous, all that is pure, all that is lovely, all that is of good report, in the whole creation, in heaven and earth, is brought together in the future city of God, but renewed, re-created, raised to its highest glory. The substance for it is present in this creation. As the caterpillar develops into a butterfly, as carbon is transformed into diamond, as the grain of wheat, dying in the earth, brings forth another, as the whole nature revives in spring and adorns itself in festive attire, as the church is formed out of Adam's fallen race, as the resurrection body is raised out of the body that has died and been buried in the earth; so also once by the re-creating power of Christ out of the elements of this world purified by fire the new heaven and earth appear,

radiant in imperishable glory and for ever delivered from the δουλεια της φθορας. More glorious than this beautiful earth, more glorious than the earthly Jerusalem, more glorious even than paradise will be the glory of the new Jerusalem, of which God himself is the artist and the builder. The status gloriae will not be a pure restoration of the original status naturae, but a reformation which, thanks to the power of Christ, causes all ὑλη to pass over into εἰδος, all potentia into actus and will set the whole creation before God's face, radiant [517] in unfading splendor and blooming in the spring of an eternal youth. Substantially nothing is lost. Outside indeed are the dogs and the sorcerers and the whoremongers and the murderers and the idolaters and every one that loves or does the lie, Op. 22:15. But in the new heaven and the new earth the world is restored; in the church the human race is preserved; in that church, which out of all nations and languages and tongues has been bought and gathered by Christ, Op. 5:9 etc., all the peoples, also Israel, each retains its distinct place and calling, Mt. 8:11,

Rom. 11:25, Op. 21:24, 22:2; and all those peoples bring together into the new Jerusalem all that each according to its distinct nature has received from God in glory and honor, Op. 21:24, 26.

9. The blessings in which the blessed share are therefore not only spiritual but also material or bodily in nature. As wrong as it is, with the heathen peoples and also with some Chiliasts, to make the latter the chief constituent of future blessedness, so one-sided is it also to count them with Stoic indifference or also to exclude them altogether from blessedness.

Scripture always keeps the spiritual and the natural in close connection; since the world consists of heaven and earth and man of soul and body, holiness and glory, virtue and happiness, moral and natural world-order ought in the end also to be harmoniously connected. The blessed will

therefore not only be free from all sin, but also from all consequences of sin, from ignorance and error, Joh. 6:45, from death, Luk. 20:36, 1 Cor.

15:26, Op. 2:11, 20:6, 14, from poverty and sickness, pain and fear, hunger and thirst, cold and heat, Mt. 5:4, Luk. 6:21, Op. 7:16, 17, 21:4, from all weakness, dishonour and corruption, 1 Cor. 15:42 etc. But the spiritual blessings are nevertheless the principal ones and are innumerably many: holiness, Op. 3:4, 5, 7:14, 19:8, 21:27, blessedness, Rom. 13:11, 1 Thess.

5:9, Hebr. 1:14, 5:9, glory, Luk. 24:36, Rom. 2:10, 8:18, 21, adoption as children, Rom. 8:23, eternal life, Mt. 19:16, 29 etc., beholding of and conformity to God and Christ, Mt. 5:8, Joh. 17:24, Rom. 8:29, 1 Cor. 13:12,

2 Cor. 3:18, Phil. 3:21, 1 Joh. 3:2, Op. 22:4, [518] communion with and serving and praising of God and Christ, Joh. 17:24, 2 Cor. 5:8, Phil. 1:23,

Op. 4:10, 5:9, 13, 7:10, 15, 21:3, 22:3 etc. Because all these benefits are in principle already bestowed on believers on earth, such as e.g. adoption as children, Rom. 9:4, 8:15, Gal. 4:5, Ef. 1:5, and eternal life, Joh. 3:15, 16, 36 etc., many have conceived the blessedness which Christ bestows exclusively as a present one, which only in the way of an ethical process realises itself more and more, Pfleiderer, Grundriss § 177. Biedermann,

Dogm. § 974 f. Scholten, Initia c. 7. Ritschl too and many of his adherents lay one-sided emphasis on the diesseitige Weltstellung des Menschen, regard the moral freedom which the Christian receives in faith over against the world as the principal benefit, and speak little or not at all of the eternal blessedness which Christ in the future prepares for his own, Ritschl, Rechtf. u. Vers. III2 459 f. 484 f. 534 f. 600 f. Over against the abstract supranaturalism of the Greek and Roman church, which conceives blessedness exclusively as transcendent and thus here on earth deems the Christian ideal of life embodied in the monk, this view defends an

important truth. The Reformation, returning to Scripture, has in principle overcome this supranaturalistic and ascetic view of life. He who believes has at that same moment forgiveness of sins and eternal life; he is a child of God, who serves the Father, not as a servant out of hope for reward, but as a son, who out of love and gratitude fulfils the will of the Father; and he fulfils that will, not by fleeing away from the world but by being faithful in the calling which is entrusted to him here on earth. Life for heaven therefore forms no antithesis with life in the midst of the world; precisely in that world Christ preserves his disciples from the Evil One. The new heaven and earth is, after all, built up out of the elements of the world that now exists, and the church is the restored humanity under Christ as Head. But however much blessedness in a certain sense is already the portion of believers on earth, it is that only in principle and not in full reality.

Believers are saved in hope, Rom. 8:24; Jesus calls the poor in spirit etc. blessed, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven, which in the future will be established on earth, [519] Mt. 5:3-10. Believers are children of God and yet still expect the full realisation of that sonship, Mt. 5:9, Rom. 8:23. They have eternal life, and yet must still receive it at the resurrection, also according to John, 5:20-29, 6:40, 44, 54. Both therefore is true, that the kingdom of heaven is there and that it nevertheless still comes. And this double truth determines the whole character of the state of glory. Just as the new heaven and earth is formed out of the elements of this world and the church is a re-creation of the human race fallen in Adam, so also the life of the blessed hereafter is to be thought of in analogy with the life of believers here on earth. It consists on the one hand not in a visio Dei in the Roman sense, to which human nature can be raised only by a donum superadditum, and on the other hand it is also not a slow and gradual development of the

Christian life that is already led here on earth by believers. It is a truly natural life, but raised by grace to its highest glory, and unfolded in its richest beauty; the materia remains, but the forma differs. Religion, that is, communion with God, therefore takes in it the first, the central place. But that communion will be richer, deeper, more blessed, than it ever was or could be here on earth, for it will be disturbed by no sin, broken by no distance, mediated by no nature or Scripture. Now we see in the mirror of God's revelation only his image; then we see face to face, and know, as we are known. Visio, comprehensio, fruitio Dei constitute the essence of future blessedness. The blessed see God, indeed not with bodily eyes, but yet in a way that far surpasses all revelation in this dispensation by means of nature and of Scripture; and correspondingly they will all know him, though each according to the measure of his capacity, with a knowledge that has in the knowledge of God its image and likeness, direct, immediate, pure and clean, part II 150-155. They then receive and possess everything which here they have expected only in hope. And thus, beholding God and possessing

God, they enjoy God and are blessed in his communion; blessed according to soul and according to body, in understanding and in will. In theology there was difference over whether blessedness hereafter formaliter resided in the understanding or in [520] the will, and thus consisted in knowledge or in love. Thomas said the former, S. Theol. I 2 qu. 3 art. 4, and Duns

Scotus asserted the latter, Sent. IV dist. 49 qu. 4. But Bonaventura united both and observed that the fruitio Dei was not only a fruit of the cognitio

Dei but also of the amor Dei and had its cause in the union and cooperation of both, Sent. IV dist. 49 p. 1 art. unic. qu. 4. 5, cf. Voetius, Disp. II 12171239.

10. The blessedness of communion with God is enjoyed in and increased by the communion of saints. Already on earth this communion is a glorious benefit of faith. Those who for Jesus' sake have left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields, receive back already in this life, with persecutions, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, Mk. 10:29, 30, for all who do the will of the Father are Jesus' brother and sister and mother, Mt. 12:50. Through the Mediator of the New Testament the believers come into communion, not only with the church militant on earth, but also with the church triumphant in heaven, the assembly of the firstborn, the spirits of the perfected righteous, even with the many thousands of angels, Hebr. 12:22-24. But this communion, although existing already on earth in principle, above p. 28, will nevertheless be incomparably much richer and more glorious, when all dividing walls of descent and language, of time and space, have been demolished, all sin and error banished, and all the elect will have been brought together in the new Jerusalem. Then the prayer of Jesus will be fully answered, that all his sheep form one flock under one Shepherd, Joh.

10:16, 17:21. All the saints will then together fully comprehend what the breadth and length and depth and height are of the love of Christ, Ef. 3:18; they will together be filled unto all the fullness of God, Ef. 3:19, Col. 2:2,

10, for Christ, whom God fills, Col. 1:19, in his turn fills the church with himself and makes it his pleroma, Ef. 1:23, 4:10, cf. part III 417. And sitting down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at one table, Mt. 8:11, they raise with one mouth the song of praise to the honor of God and of the Lamb, Op.

4:11, 5:12 etc. Of the church on earth Scripture says many times that it forms a little flock, Mt. 7:14, [521] 22:14, Luk. 12:32, 13:23, which is confirmed by history up to the present day. And even toward the end of

days, when the gospel will be preached among all peoples, the apostasy will increase and the number of the faithful will be small; already the prophecy of the O. Test. proclaimed that only a remnant of Israel would turn to the Lord and be saved, above p. 429; and the N. Test. likewise cherishes the expectation that those who persevere to the end will be few, Mt. 24:13,

25:1v., Luk. 18:8. But on the other hand Scripture often nevertheless speaks very universalistically. The covenant of grace is made known in Adam to the whole of humanity, Gen. 3:15. The covenant of nature, which is concluded after the flood, includes all creatures, Gen. 9:9, 10. In Abraham all the families of the earth are blessed, Gen. 12:3. The redemption which will once be bestowed on Israel benefits all Gentiles, above p. 433. Jesus says that he will give his soul as a ransom for many, Mt. 20:28, and that many will come from East and West and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, Mt. 8:11. The grace that has appeared in him is much more abundant than Adam's transgression; it comes upon all men unto justification of life, Rom. 5:12-20, 1 Cor. 15:22. Now in this dispensation all things in heaven and on earth are gathered together under Christ into one, Ef. 1:10. And once at the end, every knee will bow before Christ and every tongue confess him as the Lord, Phil. 2:10, 11. Then a great multitude, which no one can count, will stand before the throne and the Lamb, Op. 7:9, 19:1, 6. They are peoples who are saved and walk in the light of the new Jerusalem, Op. 21:24, 26, 22:2. And God will then be all in all, 1 Cor. 15:28. In connection with and with appeal to this latter series of texts many have cherished the hope that in the end, if not all creatures, then at least all men and, if even this should not be the case, then at least by far the most men would be saved; hell would not exist at all or would be only a small corner in the universe. They grounded this expectation of theirs either

on the possibility of also being saved by the works of the law (Pelagians, Socinians, Deists etc.), or on the opportunity to hear the gospel also after death in the intermediate state or [522] even still after the day of judgment and to accept it in faith (Universalists). These opinions have already been discussed earlier and therefore now no longer need to be tested by Scripture, cf. part I 232. II 318 f. 340 f. 350 f. III 390-408 and above p.

499v. But also among those who hold fast the confession that no one comes to the Father except through Christ and that there is only one name under heaven given for salvation, Joh. 14:6, Hd. 4:12, there have always been some who believed in the possibility of salvation in this life outside the preaching of the gospel. Thus they taught with respect to the children of the covenant, to all the children dying young within and outside the boundaries of Christendom, to idiots, insane persons, deaf-mutes, who in fact were deprived of the preaching of the gospel, and also to some or to many

Gentiles, who in their clear insight and virtuous life gave proofs of a true piety. Some church fathers assumed an activity of the Logos in the Gentile world, part I 238. Augustine believed that from the beginning there had always been some, not only among Israel but also among other peoples, who believed in the Logos and lived piously and righteously according to his commandments, Ep. 102. de civ. 18, 47 and other places in Reuter, Aug.

Studien 1887 S. 90 f. Abaelard asserted that Gentiles too could partake of salvation, in Münscher-v. Coelln, D. G. II 147. According to Strauss, Chr.

Gl. I 271, Luther once expressed the wish that God might also be gracious to men such as Cicero and Seneca, and Melanchthon wanted to leave it open whether He perhaps by a special way had communicated to Solon,

Themistocles e. a. some knowledge of forgiveness in Christ. Zwingli spoke more decisively and believed that God also had his elect among the

Gentiles, Chr. fidei expos. Op. IV 65. But others left only the possibility open and dared no more than to hope and wish, as e.g. à Lasco, in Kuyper,

Heraut 1047. Zanchius, in Shedd, Dogm. Theol. I 436 II 704. Bilderdijk, Letters V 81. Kuyper, Heraut 594 cf. 1047. Ebrard, Das Dogma v. h. Ab. II 77. Shedd, Dogm. Theol. I 436 II 704. This opinion, however, always remained the opinion of a few; the churches did not express themselves about it in their confessions and most theologians opposed it, cf. literature in M. Vitringa I 29. Somewhat more favorably [523] one judged concerning the salvation of children dying young. The Roman Catholics teach that all

Christian children who, voto or re baptized, die, are saved, and all other children dying early suffer in the limbus infantum a poena damni, not sensus, Lombardus e. a. on Sent. II dist. 33. The Lutherans judge with respect to Christian children as the Roman Catholics and leave the others to God's judgment, Gerhard, Loc. XVI § 169. Buddeus, Inst. theol. V I, 6. The Reformed inclined to believe that all children born in the covenant of grace and then taken away by death before the years of discernment partake of heavenly salvation, Can. Dordr. I 7. Voetius, Disp. II 417, although many here too made a distinction between elect and reprobate children and did not dare to ascribe salvation with certainty to each of these children individually, Martyr, Loci Comm. p. 76. 436, Beza, Pareus, Zanchius,

Perkins e. a. As for the children dying early outside the covenant, some judged rather mildly; Junius preferred to suspect out of love that they were saved rather than that they were lost, Op. II 333, and Voetius said: whether they are lost or whether some among them are elect and are regenerated before their death, nolim negare, affirmare non possum, Disp. II 413, cf. further literature in M. Vitringa II 51. 52, and especially B. Warfield, The development of the doctrine of infant salvation, in: Two studies in the

history of doctrine, New-York, Christ. Lit. Comp. 1897 p. 143-239. With Scripture in hand we can, both with respect to the salvation of the Gentiles and to that of children dying young, not get further than that we refrain from a decided and definite judgment in a positive or negative sense. Only it deserves remark that Reformed theology in these serious questions is in a much more favorable condition than any other. For all other churches can in this matter cherish a milder judgment only if they go back on their doctrine of the absolute necessity of the means of grace or make an inroad on that of the condemnability of sin. But the Reformed, in the first place, did not want to determine the measure of grace with which a man can still be bound to God even under many errors and sins, nor to determine the degree of knowledge that is indispensably necessary for salvation, Voetius, Disp. II 537. 538. 781. Witsius, Apost. Geloof II 2 and 15. Spanheim, Op. III 1291.

[524] And in the second place they maintained that the means of grace were not absolutely necessary for salvation and that God could also regenerate unto eternal life outside word and sacraments, Calvin, Inst. IV 16, 19. In the second Helv. Confession, art. 1 it reads: agnoscimus Deum illuminare posse homines, etiam sine externo ministerio, quos et quando velit; id quod ejus potentiae est. And the Westminster Confession states in cap. X § 3 that elect children who die in their infancy are regenerated and saved by the Spirit of Christ, qui quando et ubi et quo sibi placuerit modo operatur, and that this also applies to the other elect, quotquot externae vocationis per ministerium verbi sunt incapaces. Reuter therefore rightly says, when he has set forth

Augustine's doctrine on this point: In der That, es lässt sich das Paradoxon rechtfertigen, gerade die partikularistische Prädestinationslehre habe jene universalistisch klingenden Phrasen ermöglicht, Aug. Studien 92. In Reformed theology even the above-cited universalistic texts of Scripture

come best and most beautifully into their own. For universalistic in the sense that all men or even all creatures are saved, those texts are certainly not intended and also not understood by any Christian church. All confess without exception that there is not only a heaven but also a hell. At most there is therefore difference about the number of those who are saved and who are lost. But about that one must not dispute; for that number is known to God alone. To the question: Lord, are there also few who are saved, Jesus gave only the answer: strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many will seek to enter and will not be able, Luk. 13:24. This alone is directly of importance for us; the number of the elect need not be known to us. But in any case this stands firm, that the number of the elect in Reformed theology for no single reason and in no single respect needs to be thought smaller than in any other theology. When it comes to it, the Reformed confession is more generous of heart and broader of view than any other Christian confession. It finds the last, deepest cause of salvation only in God's good pleasure, in his eternal compassion, in his unfathomable mercy, in the unsearchable riches of his almighty and free grace. What firmer, broader

[525] foundation could besides that be found for the salvation of a guilty and lost human race? Let many then fall away; however moving this may be, in Christ the church, humanity, the world is nevertheless saved. The organism of creation is restored. The ungodly are destroyed from the earth,

Ps. 104:35, they are cast out, Joh. 12:31, 15:6, Op. 22:15. But under Christ all things, in heaven and on earth, are gathered together into one, Ef. 1:10.

All things have been created through him and unto him, Col. 1:16.

11. Communion with God, which is enjoyed in the communion of the saints, certainly no more in the coming age than in this dispensation excludes all action and all activity. Christian theology has as a rule devoted

little attention to this and has mostly spoken of heavenly blessedness as a knowing and enjoying of God. And this is without doubt also the core and the center, the source and the power of eternal life. Scripture also offers few data to form for us a clear conception of the activity of the blessed. It describes blessedness more as a resting from earthly labor than as the accomplishing of a new activity, Hebr. 4:9, Op. 14:13. But nevertheless the rest that is enjoyed in the new Jerusalem is, no more with God, Joh. 5:17, than with his children, to be conceived as a blessed doing-nothing. Holy

Scripture itself says that eternal life consists in a knowing and serving, in a praising and extolling of God, Joh. 17:3, Op. 4:11, 5:8 etc. His children also remain his servants, who serve Him day and night, Op. 22:3. They are prophets, priests, and kings, who reign on the earth unto all eternity, Op.

1:6, 5:10, 22:5. In proportion as they have been faithful over little on earth, they are set over much in the kingdom of God, Mt. 24:47, 25:21, 23. Each retains his own personality, for of all who enter into the new Jerusalem the names are written in the book of life of the Lamb, Op. 20:15, 27, and each receives a own, new name, Jes. 62:2, 65:15, Op. 2:17, 3:12, cf. 21:12, 14.

The dead who die in the Lord rest from their toils, but are each followed by his own works, Op. 14:13. Generations, peoples, nations contribute what is theirs to the enrichment of life in the [526] new Jerusalem, Op. 5:9, 7:9,

21:24, 26. What is sown here is reaped in eternity, Mt. 25:24, 26, 1 Cor.

15:42v., 2 Cor. 9:6, Gal. 6:7, 8. The great diversity that exists among men in every respect is not destroyed in eternity but cleansed of all that is sinful and made serviceable to communion with God and with one another. And just as natural diversity in the church on earth is still increased by spiritual diversity, 1 Cor. 12:7v., so this natural and spiritual difference in heaven increases still further by the fact that there are different degrees of glory. In

opposition to the meritoriousness of good works some Reformed, such as Martyr, Loci C. III 17, 8, Camero, Schoenfeld, Tilenus, Spanheim, just as already in the fourth century Jovinianus and later some Socinians and even now Gerlach, have denied all distinction in glory hereafter. And it is also true that the same benefits in the future of Christ are promised to all believers; they all receive the same eternal life, the same dwelling place in the new Jerusalem, the same communion with God, the same blessedness, etc. But nevertheless Scripture places it beyond all doubt that in that unity and equality there is a very great variation and diversity. Even the parable,

Mt. 20:1-16, to which one many times appeals for the contrary, pleads for such a distinction; for Jesus wishes by that parable to teach that many who in their own and others' opinion have labored long and heavily will in the future Messianic kingdom absolutely not lag behind those who have been active in the vineyard for a much shorter time; the last overtake the first, for many are indeed called and labor in the service of the kingdom of God, but few are there who for that enjoy a special distinction hereafter and receive a chosen place. Much more clearly such a gradational difference in glory is taught in other places in Scripture, especially where there is mention of a reward that will be bestowed on each according to his works. That reward is now kept in the heavens, Mt. 5:12, 6:1v., Luk. 6:23, 1 Tim. 6:19, Hebr.

10:34-37, and is only distributed publicly at the parousia, Mt. 6:4, 6, 18, 24:47, 2 Thess. 1:7, 1 Petr. 4:13. It is then bestowed as [527] compensation for what the disciples of Jesus here on earth for his sake have denied and suffered, Mt. 5:10v., 19:29, Luk. 6:21v., Rom. 8:17, 18, 2 Cor. 4:17, 2

Thess. 1:7, Hebr. 10:34, 1 Petr. 4:13, and further also as recompense for the good works that they have performed, such as e.g. for good use of the talents, Mt. 25:15v., Luk. 19:13v., for love of enemies and disinterested

generosity, Luk. 6:35, for care of the poor, Mt. 6:1, for praying and fasting, Mt. 6:6, 18, for serving the brethren, Mt. 10:40-42, for faithful service in the kingdom of God, Mt. 24:44-47, 1 Cor. 3:8 etc. That reward will be connected with and proportionate to the works, Mt. 16:27, 19:29, 25:21, 23,

Luk. 6:38, 19:17, 19, Rom. 2:6, 1 Cor. 3:8, 2 Cor. 4:17, 5:10, 9:6, Gal. 6:8, 9, Hebr. 11:26, Op. 2:23, 11:18, 20:12, 22:12. Blessedness is indeed the same for all, but there is difference in luster and glory, Dan. 12:3, 1 Cor.

15:41; there are in the Father's house, which receives all children, many dwellings, Joh. 14:2; and the churches all receive according to the measure of their faithfulness and devotion, from the king of the church an own ornament and crown, Op. 1-3. The Roman Catholics have on these statements of Scripture built the doctrine of the meritoriousness of good works, Trid. VI can. 31. 32, and the right to special rewards in heaven, which according to Ex. 25:25 are called aureolae and are added to the corona aurea that falls to all, especially assigned to the martyrs, the celibates, and the teachers, Thomas, S. Theol. III qu. 96. Bonaventura,

Brevil. VII 7. But this misuse does not take away the truth that there is distinction in glory according to the works that have been performed by believers here on earth. There is no reward to which man by nature could lay claim, for the law of God is absolutely binding and does not make the demand for fulfillment depend on the free choice of man. If therefore he has fulfilled the whole law, nothing else befits him to say than that he is an unprofitable servant, who has only done what he was obliged to do, Luk.

17:10. All claim to reward can therefore arise only from a covenant, from a sovereign and gracious disposition of God, and is therefore a given right, part II 553. So it was in the covenant of works and so it is still much more in the covenant of grace, part III 563. For [528] Christ has accomplished

everything, not only suffered the punishment but also by fulfilling the law acquired eternal life. The eternal blessedness and glory which He received was for Him the reward for his perfect obedience. But when He bestows this his righteousness on his own through faith and connects eternal life to it, then both, both that bestowed righteousness and the future blessedness, are gifts of his grace, which altogether excludes all merit on the side of believers. For believers are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has prepared, that they should walk in them,

Ef. 2:10. It is given to them by grace in the matter of Christ, not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for Him, Phil. 1:29, Hd. 5:41. Not only in the gift of eternal life to each who believes, but also in the distribution of a different measure of glory to those who from that faith have brought forth good works, God crowns his own work. But He does that also, in order that, as here, so hereafter in the church there would be a rich diversity and in that diversity the glory of his virtues would come forth. For by that diversity the life of communion with God, with the angels, and of the blessed among themselves increases in depth and in intimacy. In that communion each has, as in the church here on earth, Rom. 12:4-8, 1 Cor. 12, in connection with his person and character, an own place and task. Of the activity of the blessed we may be unable to form a pure conception, yet Scripture teaches that the prophetic, priestly, and kingly office, which man originally possessed, is in them through Christ fully restored. The service of God, mutual communion, and the inhabiting of the new heaven and the new earth undoubtedly offers for the exercise of these offices abundant opportunity, even if the form and manner of it is unknown to us. But that working is a resting and enjoying at the same time. The distinction of day and night, of sabbath and workdays has ceased; time is permeated with the eternity of

God; space is full of his presence; the eternal becoming is married to the unchangeable being. Even the antithesis of heaven and earth has disappeared. For all that is in heaven and on earth is gathered into one under [529] Christ as Head, Ef. 1:10. All creatures are and live and move in God, who is all in all, who in the mirror of his works reflects all his virtues and therein glorifies himself. Cf. on heavenly blessedness: Augustinus, de civ.

XXII c. 29. 30. Lombardus, Sent. IV dist. 49. Thomas, suppl. qu. 92-96.

Bonaventura, Brevil. VII c. 7. Oswald, Eschat. 38-57. Atzberger, Die christl. Eschat. 238 f. Simar, Dogm. § 162. Jansen, Prael. III 903-946. O.

Ritschl, Luthers Seligkeitsvorstellung in ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung, Christl. Welt 1889 S. 874-880. Gerhard, Loc. XXXI. Quenstedt, Theol. I 550-560. Hollaz 451 sq. Polanus, Synt. VI c. 72-75. Amyraldus, Theses

Salm. III 859. Synopsis pur. theol., disp. 52. Mastricht, Theol. VIII 4, 10.

Turretinus, Theol. El. XX qu. 8-13. Marck, Exspect J. C. III c. 8. 10. 11.

Moor VI 718-733. M. Vitringa IV 179. Kliefoth, Eschat. 311 f. Titius, Die N. T. Lehre von der Seligkeit im Reiche Gottes und ihre Bedeutung für die

Gegenwart 1895-1900. [530]

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