Word II. February 25, 1907

“«The Lord comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth» (Ps 95:13).”

It has been my lot to attend sessions of earthly courts, the so-called circuit courts. The setting of the main courtroom is imposing: a large portrait of the Sovereign on the wall; tables, seats; a mixed public, the dock of the accused and the accused themselves, the tense expectation of the judges.

Then the doors open; the crier proclaims loudly: the court is coming! the members of the court enter with the presiding judge; they take their seats; the record of the case is read; the accused are announced; the jurors sit; witnesses are summoned; the oath to speak only the truth is read. The examination of the case begins. All this is orderly, in due order—and makes an impression on the public. Such is the setting of an earthly, human court. For the accused it is somewhat fearful. After the degree of the accused’s guilt has been established and the judges have deliberated, the verdict is rendered and announced—punishment or release from judgment. Such, in brief outline, is an earthly court.

Human judgment presupposes the judgment of God, just as the inner judgment of conscience presupposes the eternally righteous Lawgiver and Judge, God, who has placed the law of conscience in every man. The judgment of judges is the judgment of God. Judge rightly, says Moses to the judges of Israel, for it is the judgment of God (Num 25:5).

Judges are men, and the accused are sinful men just as those who judge them, and it is natural for judges to err and sometimes to judge not rightly but crookedly—to justify the guilty and condemn the innocent. Not so is the judgment of God: it is righteous, exact, eternal. The Prophet says: the Lord will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth. Let us now all ponder the description of the dread judgment of God, the final judgment upon mankind for all eternity. When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him,—says the Evangelist, — then He shall sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all the nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say to those on His right hand: come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Mt 25:31-34). Why the kingdom of heaven? For love of God and neighbor, for works of mercy, as this divine answer shows. Then He shall say also to those on the left hand: depart from Me, cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt 25:41). For what? For want of love toward God and neighbor, for selfishness, for a mad, blind attachment to earthly goods and neglect of spiritual, eternal goods, for unbelief, coldness, ingratitude toward the Creator, and the trampling of His righteous laws, as the same answer of the righteous Judge shows. And these shall go,—it is said at the end of the day’s Gospel, — into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life (Mt 25:46).

Such, in brief words, is the description of the dread, final judgment of God upon men of all times and all places on this earthly planet. For a deeper impression of this fearsome, dread judgment upon our souls, let us enter into some of its particulars.

The Evangelist proclaims that the Son of Man, that is, Christ, shall come to judgment in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, and shall sit upon the throne of His glory. Let us dwell on the words: shall come in His glory. Can you picture to yourselves this fearsome, unseen glory of the beginningless, almighty Creator and Judge Himself, by whose word all things were made—all the angels, heaven and earth—and by whose word all things are sustained, in being and in wondrous harmony, to whom all things are obedient? On Tabor He showed to His three disciples, in a small measure, the radiance of His glory, and even that they could not bear, falling face down upon the earth. To the Apostle John the Theologian, on the island of Patmos, on the Lord’s day, the Lord appeared, already ascended into heaven—appeared in a glory measured to the capacity of the Apostle’s still-mortal eyes, and when I saw Him,—John himself says, — I fell at His feet as dead; for His face shone as the sun in its strength. And He laid His right hand upon me, and said to me: fear not; I am the First and the Last and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen; and I have the keys of hell and of death (Apok 1:16-18).

Thus did He appear on earth to His chosen disciples, quickening rather than striking them down with His light, and revealing only a little of His divine nature and His incorruptible, incomprehensible brightness. Now imagine in what glory He will appear to all nations of all ages, so that all may at once see His fearsome, unbearable, divine glory and, without any wavering, be convinced of His Godhead and divine authority—the Jews among them, who crucified Him and to this day do not believe in Him and mock Him! In what fearsome glory, I say, will He appear at His second coming, so as at once to take from all nations every possibility of unbelief and compel them to acknowledge His divine authority? Besides His own, natural, eternal glory, He will be surrounded by the fearsome glory of all the countless angelic hosts, mighty in strength and fearsome in their heavenly glory. There will appear the flaming thrones of reason, and the many-eyed cherubim, and the fearsome seraphim, whose glory even righteous men could not bear to behold.

How, then, will impenitent sinners feel, and the unbelieving multitude of the Jews, who pierced Him and to this day persecute Him in the person of the faithful! John the Seer answers: behold, He comes with clouds, and every eye will see Him, and those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will wail before Him. Yes, amen (Apok 1:7). Note these closing words: yes and amen, that is, this shall come to pass surely and unalterably.

In what condition, then, will our present, past, and future unbelievers appear—the so-called intelligentsia, and all the decadents, the unbelieving and ill-intentioned writers who have made the printed word a weapon of slander, deceit, temptation, trafficking, and mockery of every sacred thing and of well-meaning people? Before them, that which they scoffed at here, which they denied, which they mocked, will be all too real. The manifest truth will strike them, will render them mute and without answer; and in that in which they here counted themselves unaccountable, they will find themselves guilty and accountable; for the word of the Lord will not pass by unfulfilled, that for every idle word that men speak, they shall give account on the day of judgment (Mt 12:36). At that judgment, king and soldier will stand together; the rich and the poor; the old and the young; the learned and the unlearned; man and woman—in equal dignity; each will be glorified or put to shame by his own deeds (Mt 12:37). Then eternity will open before those who did not believe in it, in all its fearsome majesty and horror; but for the believing and devoted to the Lord—in all its longed-for beauty and glory and unshakeable blessedness.

While we have time, let us use it for repentance and correction. Amen.