The General Resurrection of the Dead
The Hebraic tradition viewed the human person as grounded in the earth yet capable of transcendence, a single composite reality of inspirited body, so closely woven that it was unthinkable that one could be a person without a body of some sort. The New Testament makes frequent reference to the “resurrection of the dead” (Matt. 22:31; Luke 20:35; Acts 4:2), so as to underscore the expected event as corporate experience as well as corporeal, viewed as participation in the risen Lord.
The Resurrection of the Body
It is an article of the creed to “believe in the resurrection of the body” (SCD 6). “We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come” (Creed of the 150 Fathers). The confession recurs in virtually every form of the ancient rule of faith. The Faith of Damasus confessed explicitly, “We believe that cleansed in his death and in his blood we are to be raised up by him on the last day in this body with which we now live” (SCD 15; cf. Creed of the Council of Toledo, SCD 20). On his return, the Lord is expected to call the dead from the grave to be raised up by the power of God. “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (John 5:25; Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 37; Chrysostom, Hom. on John 39.2).
Early preaching consisted in “proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 4:2). What Paul preached could be summarized simply as “Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). To deny the resurrection according to Jesus, would be tantamount to having little knowledge of scripture (Matt. 22:29). It was the defining error of the Sadducees against which Jesus actively taught (Mark 12:18–23; Luke 20:27–33; Acts 23:6–8).
Resurrection (anastasis, a standing up again, egersis, being raised up) is defined in the Eastern Orthodox Longer Catechism as that “act of the almighty power of God, by which all bodies of dead men, being reunited to their souls, shall return to life, and shall thenceforth be spiritual and immortal” (366). “For if they define death as the separation of soul and body, resurrection surely is the re-union of soul and body” (John of Damascus, OF 4.27). “All men shall rise again with their own bodies” (Fourth Lateran Council). Resurrection is the act of God by which the human bodies of all times and places, just and unjust alike, though reduced to dust, shall be restored to the souls from which they were separated by death, to be united for eternity in either nearness or distance from God (Pearson, Creed, art. 11).
The Just and the Unjust
The key text is from John—“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28, 29; Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 37–38). When this call comes, all will hear, though dead (Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism 16).
Some passages of scripture appear to speak only of a resurrection of the just (Isa. 26:19; Luke 14:14). Yet Daniel expected the multitudes now dead to “awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame” (Dan. 12:2).
When Paul stood before the earthly governor Felix, he did not hesitate to point out that all finally must be accountable to the heavenly judge, for there will be “a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked” (Acts 24:15). This is unambiguously affirmed in the “Athanasian” Creed (Quiquncue): “whence he will come to judge all living and dead: at whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies, and will render an account of their deeds; and those who have behaved well will go to eternal life, those who have behaved badly to eternal fire”.
All nations are included (Matt. 25:32); “great and small” (Rev. 20:12) will stand before the final judge. The intention of the phrase in the psalm “the wicked will not stand in the judgment” (Ps. 1:5) is that those who are wicked will appear but will be unable to stand upright in the final judgment (Aphrahat, Demonstrations, Of Death).
“I Am the Resurrection”
Jesus not only taught but was the resurrection. From his risen presence the disciples learned what to expect of the end of history. Similarly the coming general resurrection is already being anticipatively experienced in the present by those whose lives are hid in Christ. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25, 26).
Jesus’ resurrection (anastasis) illumines both our own present risen life of faith and our future resurrection—both “the ‘first resurrection’ from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, and the ‘second resurrection’ or call back from physical death to life.” (Wollebius, RDB: 181, quoting Rev. 20:6). “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Rom. 8:11).
Anastasis is the defining event of the gospel narrative. It had been repeatedly anticipated in many Old Testament promises showing the power of God to renew life and restore lost possibilities: Joseph was raised from the pit. Isaac was raised up from virtual death and given life by God’s providence. Abraham was poised to follow the command to sacrifice Isaac who was again raised up. The return from Babylon (Ezek. 37), the taking up of Enoch (Gen. 5:24), Elijah and the son of the woman of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:21), Elisha and the Shunammite’s son (2 Kings 4:34) were all regarded by ancient Christian exegetes as anticipatory types of the coming resurrection of the Son, and ultimately of all the just and unjust (Methodius, Of the Resurrection). Noah’s salvation from the great flood and Moses’ exodus were viewed, in the light of Jesus’ resurrection, as a kind of baptism, a resurrection. These ancient narratives formed the background of interpretation of New Testament accounts of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:41), the widow of Nain (Luke 7:15), Lazarus (John 11), and those who arose at the burial of Jesus (Matt. 27:52).
The expectation of the general resurrection of the body is a distinctive teaching of Judaism and Christianity. Resisting dualisms, it honors the body as integral to human nature. The resurrection locus classicus of Hebrew scripture is enunciated amid the patient suffering of Job: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another” (Job 19:25–27; Jerome, To Pammachius 30). “That Christ rose is the peculiar faith of Christians” (Leiden Synopsis, 51.3).
How Immortality and Resurrection Correlate
The event of resurrection and the idea of immortality have often been contrasted in modern Christian teaching. But in ancient exegesis there is a close link between them: In the resurrection the dead will rise “again at the end of the world and become immortal” (Eastern Orthodox Catechism: 92).
The life that one receives in creation is made mortal through the consequences of sin. The person is deprived of life in time by bodily death. The body in this temporal life is given as a provisional housing for the person through creation (2 Cor. 5:1–5). Congruently but differently: the life that one receives by resurrection is made immortal through the consequences of grace. In the Genesis account soul was created after body, following the generation of the body, adapting itself to the body. In the end, the process is reversed: the body becomes adapted to the spirit, following after the soul, as the glorified body (1 Cor. 15:42; Didymus the Blind, Comm. on Paul, 15:10).
Thomas Aquinas provided a classic summary of patristic reasoning why, upon rising, there will be no dying again: Resurrection is required to accomplish God’s purpose for humanity because “man’s ultimate perfection demands the reunion of soul and body,” for the human person without body is missing something essential, hence “a natural desire rises within the soul for union with the body; its will cannot be utterly stilled until it be reunited with the body, in other words, until man rises from the dead.” (Tho. Aq., Compend. of Theology 151). Thomas argued the congruity of resurrection with immortality in this way: “It is against the nature of the soul to be without the body. But nothing that is against nature can be lasting. Therefore the soul will not be forever without the body. Thus the immortality of the soul seems to require the resurrection of the body” (Tho. Aq., SCG 4, 79). Those who rise by Christ’s merit will suffer death no more, because by his passion he has “repaired the deficiencies of nature which sin had brought upon nature” in death (SCG 4, 82). “We ought to be judged, and if need be punished, in the composite human nature in which we have done good or ill” (Hall, DT 10:150). The mortal person is given life anew through the new correspondence of body with soul in the resurrection of the dead. The body is given a glorified form through the resurrection (Tho. Aq., SCG 4, 82.7).
Immortality Brought to Light Through the Gospel of the Resurrection
The hope of immortality is not denied in classic Christianity but viewed in the light of the resurrection. Immortality means deathlessness, immunity to death, not being subject to death or to any corrupting influence that might lead to death. The resurrection of Jesus provided for Christian faith the hope of imperishable life, the death of death, the hope of eternal life (Origen, OFP: 181–85).
The true teaching of immortality has been brought to light through the gospel of grace. “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality [aphtharsian] to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:9–10). Through grace we arise again and “abide immortal” (Athanasius, Ag. Arians 2.75). “In Christ’s death, death died. Life dead slew death; the fullness of life swallowed up death; death was absorbed in the body of Christ” (Augustine, Tractates on John 12.11). The soul is life and cannot die because life cannot lack itself (Augustine, Immort. Of Soul, 9.16). In destroying death, Christ brought the hope of imperishable life to light and transmuted the hypothesis of the immortality of the soul, not negating the hope of immortality, but viewing it now in the light of the gospel of the resurrection (Augustine, Trin., FC 45:382–87).
Those who set immortality and resurrection in direct opposition, as if contraries, have misplaced the correlation between them enabled by grace. By this gospel, Christians have been born “into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish [kle-ronomian apartharton], spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power” (1 Pet. 1:3–4; Hilary of Arles, Intro. Comm. on 1 Pet. 1.4). “FFor you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Pet. 1:23). The new birth by faith through grace offers imperishable life (Bede, On 1 Pet. 1.23). “There is a first birth, in the descent of Adam, which is mortal and therefore corruptible, but there is also a later birth which comes from the Spirit and the ever-living Word of God” (Didymus the Blind, Comm. on 1 Pet. 1.23). The resurrection thereby confirmed the perennial human hope for immortality by transforming it into the assurance that through Christ the future life transcends death and corruption (Augustine, CG, FC 14:457–549).
Death Overcome
Attitudes toward death were changed by the resurrection. Prior to Jesus’ resurrection, “all wept for the dead as though they perished. But now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrible,” for believers truly “know that when they die they are not destroyed, but actually begin to live, and become incorruptible through the Resurrection” (Athanasius, Incarn. of the Word 27).
Athanasius offered as sufficient evidence of this radical change the incontestable historical fact that courageous women were empowered to martyrdom without fear. Every Christian who had lived through the Diocletian persecution (AD 303–305, as had Athanasius himself) knew this to be a fact. It was especially harsh in Alexandria. This example was offered to show the courage of these women: their laughter at the fires of their own persecution. The martyred women who shared in Christ’s resurrection learned to “despise even what is naturally fearful,” he attested, as those persons from India who handle fire, touching it but unafraid, as stubble enclosed in asbestos no longer needs to dread the fire (Athanasius, Incarn. of the Word 27, 44). It is likely that the great bishop of Alexandria had personally ministered to such women.
Celebration of the Body
There is in Jewish and Christian hope of the resurrection of the dead no contempt for the body, nor is there an idealization of the disembodied soul. For what is it that is valued and raised anew but the body?
Hence the body is greatly honored in Christianity (Rom. 6:19; 12:1; 1 Cor. 6:19, 20; 9:27), not only in the incarnation, which is the coming of God in the flesh, but the resurrection as well, which is the reuniting of the human body-soul composite for an eternal destiny near to or separated from God (Justin Martyr, On the Resurrection 7).
That the Lord affirms the body is evident in the incarnation, where he assumed not only a human soul but a body. The body of Christ has extraordinary importance in Christianity. His body was offered as a sacrifice on the cross. The Supper is a participation in his body (John 6:35–40). Ultimately our very bodies are to be redeemed. “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices” (Rom. 12:2). “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?” (1 Cor. 6:15).
The whole body is understood as set apart for service, as a temple. The Spirit is at work to renew and sanctify the hands (Eph. 4:28), the mouth (Eph. 4:29), the tongue (1 Pet. 3:15), the eyes (Ps. 119:37), the ears (James 1:19), for all the “parts of your body” are “instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:13).
The Christian hope risks distortion if stated as if it were essentially a hope for the soul’s escape from the prison of the body into a purely spiritual realm. Christianity hopes for the renewal of the whole person, where I will again be myself, will live again in my glorified body (Ignatius, Smyrna 2–9). It is the body revivified that rises in the resurrection. “It is precisely the substance of this our flesh but without sin, which will rise again” (Formula of Concord, 548).
Manichaean teaching of matter as evil is rejected by resurrection teaching. Calvin regarded it as a Manichaean error to think that the flesh, being unclean, cannot rise again, as if to imagine that what is infected with the taint of sin could not be divinely cleansed (Calvin, Inst. 3.25). The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Though the seat of unruly affections, pride, and vanity, the body rightly understood is a divine gift that may in turn be completely consecrated.
The body as such is not treated as an encumbrance but as essential to humanity when viewed within the economy of salvation. “It is not the body, but the corruptibility of the body, which is a burden to the soul” (Augustine, CG 13.16; cf. 1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 8:20–23; Gal. 5:17). “Man is so constituted by nature that every line of the spirit’s receptivity and expression is conditioned and accomplished by the use of matter; and no evidence exists that the supernatural elevation of human nature hereafter will bring this law to an end” (Hall, DT 10:162).
The resurrection is of the body, but not simply this natural body of flesh, as if it could be spiritlessly restored, for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Cor. 15:50). Rather God is preparing a body suitable to the conditions of eternity in the divine presence (Rufinus, Comm. on Apostles’ Creed 40).
“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44). Spiritual body does not mean body made out of spirit but body completely enlivened by spirit, just as the present body is indwelt and empowered by the soul (1 Cor. 15:44–46). “Paul teaches not the resurrection of physical bodies but the resurrection of persons, and this is not in the return of the ‘fleshly body,’ that is, the biological structure, an idea which he expressly describes as impossible (‘the perishable cannot become imperishable’), but in the different form of the life of the resurrection” (Ratzinger, IC: 277).
The Same Person
Since it is the whole person that God loved and redeemed, the restored whole person is promised as a future hope in Jewish and Christian teaching (Tertullian, Apology 48–50).
Resurrection is the complete and final restoration of the whole person. Only on the premise of this restoration is one able to complete humanity’s intended eternal destiny of closeness to God (Origen, OFP III.6).
“Resurrection is the restoration of the same human body to life in the same substance, less mortality” (Bucanus, ITLC 37.2, Heppe, RD: 701). If the notion of “same body” is not sustained, the resurrection risks being diluted into the notion of a resurrection into a different body (Irenaeus, Ag. Her. 5.32). “If the soul did not resume the same body, there would be no resurrection, but rather the assumption of a new body” (Tho. Aq., ST supp., Q79.1). The glorified body is not a different body, but a different form of the same body. “We shall arise, clothed not in air or some other flesh, but in the self-same [now-glorified flesh] in which we live, exist, and move” (Eleventh Council of Toledo). Final judgment would make little sense if “new bodies were to be brought before the judgment seat” (Calvin, Inst. 3.25.7, cf. Augustine, Ag. Adimantus 12I.5). “For He did not raise the soul without the body but the body along with the soul; and not another body but the very one that was corrupt” (John of Damascus, OF 4.27).
Whether the Atomistic Dissolution of the Body Confounds the Resurrection
Does this imply that precisely the same cells and molecules that once constituted our body will be regathered and recomposed? No. For even in earthly existence, there is no such continuity. The body is constantly changing materially, and has been doing so since infancy (Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man 27–30). Yet its basic features have continuity, due to their genetic coding. The DNA molecules provide a unique, specific code for every individual that stamps each one as distinctive. There is no precise molecular sameness between the grain of wheat buried in the ground and the harvest gathered the next summer, but there is clearly continuity in the intergenerational organism (Sister Macrina, On the Soul and the Resurrection, NPNF 2 4:446).
Metabolically, “the human body changes its material composition every seven years or so. Hence there can be no absolute bodily identity even in this life” (Pohle, DT 12:141). The Pauline teaching of the “same body” does not require a restoration even more fixed and absolute than ordinary metabolic changes require. God will find fit means to guarantee the sameness of the body without construing this as precisely the same cellular identity. The identity of the person will remain, as one person may survive several physical bodies metabolically during a given lifetime. “The human beings that rise again are the identical human beings who lived before, though their vital processes are performed in a different way” (Tho. Aq., Compend. of Theology 155).
Even while the physical body is being dissolved through time and death, the glorified body will live on, having been given life in baptism, fed by the Eucharist, and clothed in glory at the last day (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. Lect. 18.7). “For just as, not existing before I was born, I knew not who I was, and only existed in the potentiality of fleshly matter, but being born, after a former state of nothingness, I have obtained through my birth a certainty of my existence; in the same way, having been born, and through death existing no longer, and seen no longer, I shall exist again just as before I was not, but was afterwards born. Even though fire destroy all traces of my flesh, the world receives the vaporized matter, and though dispersed through rivers and seas, or torn in pieces by wild beasts, I am laid up in the storehouses of a wealthy Lord” (Tatian, Orat. Ag. the Greeks 6).
Lacking Resurrection, Is There Moral Absurdity?
If one posits a history full of injustice without a resurrection, the power of evil would appear greater than the power of God, and a major defect would persist in the economy of salvation (Tertullian, The Resurrection of the Flesh 41–49). Resurrection is a necessary link in the moral chain of divine promises (John of Damascus, OF 4.27).
“Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?” asked Job (21:7). There is a moral embarrassment in providence if this question is forever postponed and never dealt with finally (Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man 21). At some point the serious moral consciousness must posit a future life in which justice is better done than in ordinary history (Tho. Aq., SCG 4.79).
“You must charge God with lack of justice, if there be not judgment and recompense after this world.” How could God be righteous if murderers go forever unpunished? No one who presides over the games crowns the athlete while he is striving, but “waits till he has seen how every competitor finishes” (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. Lect. 18.4).
The Resurrection Analogy of a Living Organism from a Dying Seed
The body that dies becomes subject to the decomposition of its constituent parts, abandoned to the general laws of matter. Can an identity be preserved amid this disintegration? Paul answered with a metaphor: “But someone may ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’ How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body” (1 Cor. 15:35–38, italics added). The seed must be buried to come alive. It must pass into a certain sort of decay and dissolution in order that the seed may then disengage from its old form and begin to sprout. Similarly our bodies die, that by dying they may enter at length into a new life.
The body of the seed dies but the principle of life in the seed remains ready to come alive once buried (Longer Catech., Eastern Orthodox Church, 367). Though there is a vast change, the former identity is not destroyed. The changed form does not imply a breach of organic continuity or a transubstantiation of matter into spirit or the transmigration of souls from one body to another, for it is the same soma that is “delivered from its present subjection to the animal psuchē, and is subjected to the higher pneuma” (Hall, DT 10:151). The flesh that cannot inherit incorruption has reference to the intrinsic limitations of the present physical soma. Though the body cannot of itself inherit incorruption, it can put on incorruption in the form of being clothed with the imperishable when raised by the power of God (1 Cor. 15:50–54).
The sister of Gregory of Nyssa, Macrina, was his key teacher on the resurrection. What happens in the resurrection, she said, is: “the return of human nature to its primal condition. Originally we also were, in a sense, a full ear, but we were withered by the torrid heat of sin; and then on our dissolution by death the earth received us. But in the spring of the resurrection the earth will again display this naked grain of our body as an ear, tall, luxuriant, and upright” (Sister Macrina, On the Soul and the Resurrection, italics added).
Paul was confident that the risen faithful would be like the risen Lord, our risen bodies like his risen body, no longer subject to death (1 Cor. 15:50–58).
The Risen, Glorified Body
If the new body is more glorious, it is unreasonable to grieve inordinately over the loss of the old body. “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:42, 43).
“With what kind of body will they come?” (1 Cor. 15:35). What are the properties of the resurrection body? Our Lord’s risen body reveals the pattern of the resurrection body, for “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20, 21, italics added).
The transfiguration narrative anticipated the type of the glorified body, where Jesus’ “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light,” and “there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus” (Matt. 17:2; cf. Luke 9:29).
That the risen body is spiritual does not imply that it has become so etherealized as to be no longer a body. It will be distinguishable from what it now is, yet without the unneeded digestive-reproductive functions of the animal economy.
The notion of a spiritual body remains a mystery even when best explained. From scripture we may learn as much as we need to know.
Endowments of the Glorified Body
The risen (glorified-spiritual) body is being endowed with all that is requisite for life in the presence of the holy God. The vision of God is finally beheld only through the transformed eyes of the resurrected body (1 John 3:2; 1 Cor. 13:12).
God is able to renew the body so as to make it a fit temple for the glorified spirit. The risen body will enjoy a bliss and perfection and beauty that reflects its joyful participation in the completeness and beauty of God (Tho. Aq., ST supp., 3, Q83–85). The risen body “will be perfectly purged of all earthly lees and dregs, all senses rendered purer, all movements and actions more perfect, and because they will be removed from the necessities of this animal life, sleep, rest, food, drink, medicines, clothes, etc., and because they will be perfectly subject to the Holy Spirit, and their souls regenerated” (Riisen, 18.24, in Heppe, RD: 708). It is promised to be consummately radiant, agile, fine, and not subject to suffering (Tho. Aq., Compend. of Theology 168).
The risen body will not die, because it is “raised imperishable” (1 Cor. 15:42). “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4). The risen body will be capable of reflecting the glory of God, because it is “raised in glory” (1 Cor. 15:43) able to praise God without distraction, knowing no weariness or fainting.
In its glorified state, the soul will be given as much or greater excellence than existed in humanity before the fall. The community of the resurrection experiences understanding without error, light without shadow, wisdom without ignorance, reason without obscurity, memory without forgetfulness, volition without depravity, joy without sorrow, and pleasure without pain. In the state of innocence Adam and Eve were not by nature intrinsically prone to sin. So in the state of glory the renewed humanity will not be inclined toward sin (J. Wesley, WJW 6:241–52).
These inferences are drawn from scripture texts on the resurrection body of the faithful, and inferences from the narratives of the risen Lord. There is less to go on with respect to the risen bodies of the unjust. They will be cast from God’s presence. Apart from God they will lack these qualities of glory, brilliance, perfection of powers, and spirituality. More than this the wisdom of God has not revealed (John of Damascus, OF 37).
Resurrection as New Creation
What Abraham said of Yahweh is pertinent to resurrection hope: nothing is too hard for the Lord (Gen. 18:14; cf., Jer. 32:17, 27). God is just as able to restore the unity of the person as God is able to create the person in the first place. “God created us out of nothing; why should He not be able to reawaken that which is destroyed?” (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. Lect. 18.6). Though above reason, resurrection is not contrary to reason, any more than is creation contrary to reason.
Resurrection is a new creation. Those who believe that the world has been created and exists in all its complexity do not find it impossible that the resurrection can occur in all its complexity. “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8; Chrysostom, Hom. on Acts 52)—if God is able to create all that is from nothing? “It is more difficult to give a beginning to what does not exist than to recall into existence what has once existed” (Minucius Felix, To Octavius 34).
When Paul preached the resurrection in Athens, Luke’s account notes that “some of them sneered” (Acts 17:32). When he proclaimed it before the provincial governor, he was thought to be insane (Acts. 26:8). Upon its first report the disciples “did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:11; cf. John 20:25; Matt. 28:17).
“Although the resurrection of the dead is beyond [the power of] nature, and [understanding it] is beyond [the capacity of] corrupt reason, it is not contrary to nature, or right reason. Right reason indeed teaches both that the dead can be raised, and that they must be. The former is learned from God’s omnipotence and the latter from his justice” (Wollebius, RDB: 182). The final cause or purpose of the resurrection is “the revelation of the justice and mercy of God; justice in the raising of the wicked for condemnation; and mercy in the raising of the righteous for eternal life” (Wollebius, RDB: 182, 183; cf. Tho. Aq., ST supp., Q79).
Sex and Food in the Glorified Life
Since there is no degeneration of risen bodies, there is no need for generation. The sexual functions of copulation and birth giving are no longer required. The Lord seems to have settled the question for Christian teaching by saying, “When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25).
Every soul will be reunited with its own body. There will remain a distinction of sexes, yet without the exercise of sexual function (Matt. 22:30; Augustine, CG 22.17; Leiden Synopsis 51.37). One’s sexual identity in the resurrection remains intrinsically an aspect of one’s personal identity. The notion that women will be changed into men was consistently refuted, for the One “who created both sexes will restore both” (Augustine, CG 22.17).
In this life we need food and drink to nurture the earthly body, to prevent it from deteriorating and allow it to grow. But in the risen life there is nothing to cause the glorified body to deteriorate or tend toward corruption (SCG 4, 83). When Christ ate and drank after his resurrection, he did so “not out of necessity, but to establish the truth of His resurrection” (Tho. Aq., SCG 4, 82.19).
At the end of history, the Son is expected to return to earth. The biblical texts suggest that Christ will return in a glorious, public, sudden, and visible manner. It is an article of faith that Christ, having ascended into heaven, “is coming to judge the living and the dead” (Apostles’ Creed, SCD 2).
Parousia
With Jesus’ resurrection the question arose as to whether the coming age had arrived. A new era had been inaugurated, yet he was expected to come again to complete his saving work begun in his earthly ministry. There is good reason despite form-critical skepticism to conclude that Jesus himself expected and taught of his return (parousia, Calvin, Inst. 2.16.17; O. Cullmann, The Early Church: 143–65).
All New Testament writers looked forward to the consummation of the kingdom of God that was inaugurated in the ministry of Jesus. At the Last Supper he said, “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:25). Paul wrote to Corinth, “Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). The faithful are called to “eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed” (1 Cor. 1:7).
The expectation of his return impressed itself deeply upon the minds of Jesus’ followers. His return is not a supplementary footnote, but a recurrent subject of searching discourse by both Jesus and the apostles. The Fourth Gospel recalls his last teaching: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me” (John 14:3; Cyril of Alex., Comm. on John 9).
In the Same Personal Way
Before his farewell meal, he reminded the disciples that they would “see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.” Having come first in weakness and humility, he would come again in power. His personal coming would be visible as an event in history that “all the nations” would be able to behold (Matt. 24:30), not an imaginary or fantastic or invisible event. “We do not know what is coming to us. But we know Who is coming” (Evanston Assembly Message, WCC, CC: 581).
Immediately after his ascension two heavenly messengers announced, “He will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11, italics added; Augustine, Tractates on John 21.13.2–4). This suggests that his future coming will be, like the incarnation and ascension, personal and visible (Rev. 1:7; 19:11–16). His personal resurrection and ascension is to be completed by his personal return to judge. This return will signify a final victory over the powers of evil yet remaining in history, a victory he promises to share with his called out people. The victory marks the consummation of history, and of the history of revelation.
From Above
“Let no one, therefore, look for the Lord to come from earth, but out of Heaven” (John of Damascus, OF 4.26). The descent will be from “the clouds” just as the ascension was into the clouds.
God’s glory is often said to appear in clouds (Exod. 16:10; 19:9; Num. 12:5; 2 Chron. 5:13). At his transfiguration a cloud overshadowed him (Matt. 17:5), and at his ascension a cloud received him (Acts 1:9). So his final return will be from clouds of divine majesty and glory in a way that can be beheld by all. “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him” who is called “the Alpha and the Omega” (Rev. 1:7, 8).
Parousia Defined
Several complementary terms were used to point to this event. First and foremost, his return is called the Parousia, literally, presence (1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 2:19; 2 Pet. 1:16), sometimes translated as “second coming” or return. This does not imply a simple repetition of an event that has already occurred. Rather, it is the consummation of what was begun in the incarnation.
This coming or presence is also called his epiphaneia, appearance (2 Thess. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8), or his phanerōsis, manifestation: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:3, 4). This coming will constitute a final apokalypsis or unveiling, removing all that now obstructs our temporal beholding of Christ (2 Thess. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:7). The last day will finally disclose that the meaning of all history has from the outset been hidden in Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega of history (Rev. 1:8; 22:13; Calvin, Inst. 2.15–16; 4.18.20).
In this final appearance, the servant (doulos) form of the body of Christ will be glorified. His coming as incarnate Lord ended in his sacrificial action of atonement. So his final return will not be to repeat the cross, but to declare God’s glory to all creation. “Now at His first coming when Christ came to be judged, He appeared in the form of weakness. Therefore at the second coming, when He will come to judge, He will appear in the form of glory” (Tho. Aq., ST supp., Q90.2, italics added).
His Appearing: Past, Present, Future
In the past tense, Christ appeared in his earthly ministry that ended on the cross. The appearance of the incarnate Lord came to a climactic end in his sacrificial death and resurrection: “But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26, italics added).
In the present tense, in the period between ascension and Parousia, Christ is currently appearing in heavenly intercession for humanity: “For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have to suffer many times since the creation of the world” (Heb. 9:24–26, italics added).
In the future tense, Christ “will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Heb. 9:28b; Origen, Hom. on Lev. 9.9.3). The same person who suffered on the cross will come again at the end of history. “So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and he will appear a second time” (Heb. 9:28a).
The Purposeful Uncertainty of the Hour of Judgment
The ironic parallelism of death and judgment is deftly captured by orthodox Lutheran John Gerhard: “Just as death is certain, but the hour of death is uncertain, so it is certain that the final judgment will at some time follow, but the hour of judgment is uncertain” (LT 19:274).
Why purposefully uncertain? “As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin, and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity: so will he have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord is coming” (Westminster Conf. 33.3; cf. Ambrose, On Chr. Faith 4.17). “For what He refused to tell the apostles, He will not reveal to others” (Tho. Aq., ST supp., Q77.3). “He scatters the fingers of all calculators and bids them be still” (Augustine, CG 18.53).
Paul in his early letters expected an early return of the Lord (1 Thess. 4:13–5:10; 2 Thess. 1:7–10; 2:1–12), but by the time of his later letters this sense of imminence seems to recede, and the Lord’s return is envisaged as a fuller cosmic event (Col. 1:12–20; Theodoret, Epis. to Eph. 1:10) that might be delayed. He gradually focused more upon the certainty of the consummation than the time, calling hearers to work and not merely to wait. In Crete and Ephesus he urged Timothy and Titus to work toward establishing the ekklēsia on the assumption that it must be prepared to have an extended intergenerational future before the consummation. Against a completely realized eschatology, the notion that the day of the Lord has already happened is specifically repudiated by Paul (2 Thess. 2:2).
The Rhetoric of Foreshortening
That is imminent which hangs over, threatens, projects over (imminens), appears as if it could happen at any time. The root word does not mean it is certain to come soon, but that its coming could be at any time, including the next moment. The sweeping consequence of final judgment is rhetorically reinforced by the metaphors of imminence, but this does not necessarily mean simple temporal nearness.
With this in mind, the sacred texts employ the prophetic rhetorical device of foreshortening the future so as to view it from the standpoint of eternity, as if a thousand years were but a day. Jesus employed the prophetic rhetoric of an imminent end, yet at the same time made it clear that the specific time of the end was known only to the Father (Mark 13:32). Even in his last letters Paul still expected the imminent return, though he was aware that he might not live to experience it.
Those who asked too curiously about “When?” were reproved. They were taught rather to be ready at any time. The day is known only to God. “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority” (Acts 1:7). “No one knows about that day or hour” (Mark 13:32). The faithful are called to leave to God the time and manner of “the day of the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:5; Phil. 1:6).
This did not imply that there would be no signs indicating the end time, but that short of that time “the Lord wished the time of the future judgment to remain hidden, that men might watch with care so as not to be found unprepared” (Tho. Aq., Compend. of Theology, ch. 242). With the Turk nearing Vienna, the papacy falling away, and the world “cracking on all sides,” Luther confessed his intuition “that the world will not endure a hundred years” (Table Talk). Yet five centuries later, we know that these events, as portentous as they seemed, were yet to bear fruits of the Spirit that would themselves become a part of the larger, more patient economy of providence.
The blessed hope turns into a macabre vision when the hyperreligious drift into cynically, almost eagerly, waiting for God to destroy the first creation, as if there were something virtuous in beholding destruction. It is not intended that a preoccupation with his return will lead the faithful to undervalue his first coming or his cosmic creation, or to fixate on the details of his return so as to neglect the significance of his incarnate life and atoning death or mission to the fallen world. To “compute the times” is “to wish to know what He himself said that no one can know” (Hugh of St. Victor, SCF: 452).
Since prophecy is only fully understood at the point of its fulfillment (1 Pet. 1:11), these consummating events may not be clearly recognizable until they are already in the process of happening. Meanwhile we are instructed to “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). The crucial test is the simple confession of Jesus Christ as incarnate Lord. “The spirit of the anti-christ, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world” is precisely characterized by the failure to acknowledge Jesus as God’s own coming (1 John 4:2, 3).
Though uncertain as to time, the approach of the day of his coming will be accompanied by signs. Even if the signs may take an extended period for their fulfillment, the coming itself will be sudden and largely unexpected (Mark 13:36; Luke 21:34, 35; Matt. 24:42–44).
Signs of the Times to Precede the General Judgment
The descriptions of the signs of the end usually include a series of tribulations—wars, famines, earthquakes, persecutions, and apostasy, and the emergence of massive forces opposing Christ (Longer Catech., Eastern Orthodox Church, 234). It seems clear from history generally, however, that these signs are reasonably frequent in ordinary history, hence belong to the structure of this dying world—ascension to Parousia. There have always been natural disasters and outrages against oppressed peoples. These signs exhort us to be aware of our finitude and sin and to be constantly awake to the hope of God’s own coming.
The signs that appear as portents of vast disruption in history will recur with greater frequency and intensity as the end approaches (Barnabas 4.4). Several key passages portray these signs, especially Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, as well as Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians and the Book of Revelation. Virtually all the signs that appear in Mark 13 and Matthew 24 recur among the woes of the Apocalypse. It remains debatable among classic exegetes whether or how they may fit together as an overall pattern, and to what extent they are to be literally or metaphorically interpreted.
The actually beheld event of the destruction of Jerusalem became a prevailing archetype for interpreting the general denouement of all things (Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:21, 22; 2 Pet. 3:9). The desolating sacrilege of Daniel was employed to interpret the destruction of Jerusalem, which was seen as a foreshadowing of all end events (Irenaeus, Ag. Her. 5.25; Eusebius, CH 3.5–10).
The Universal Preaching of the Gospel: The Calling of the Gentiles
Among other signs of the end were the complementary signs of the calling of the Gentiles and the gathering of the people of Israel. A worldwide dissemination of the gospel is expected among all nations (Mark 13:10; Rom. 11:25). “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14); “and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). All the nations will be given an opportunity to enter the kingdom (Acts 15:14; Rom. 9:24–26; Eph. 2:11–20) before the final judgment. God will not allow the historical process to end until all societies have an opportunity to respond to the news of God’s mercy (Origen, Ag. Celsus 2.13).
This does not imply that the end must await the literal conversion of every single living person, but that the gospel must be preached, the testimony given, the offer of forgiveness extended to all before the end, and that there will be believers found throughout the world (John of Damascus, OF 4.26; Chrysostom, Hom. on Matt. 76).
The Gathering of Israel
Both Testaments attest a future return or restoration of Israel (Zech. 12:10; 13:1; 2 Cor. 3:15, 16). The gathering of Israel had been elaborately promised by the Old Testament prophets (Isa. 1:24–27; 60:15–22; Jer. 3:12–18; Ezek. 20:40–42; Amos 9:11–15; Mic. 7:18–20; Zeph. 3:19, 20; Zech. 8:1–9).
The hope of the gathering of God’s people is found as early as the Deuteronomic covenant, that “when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it” (Deut. 30:2–5; John of Damascus, OF 4.26).
During the dispensation of the gospel God will continue gathering his people until the fullness (pleroma, the full number of the elect) of the Gentiles has come into the kingdom. The sequence was rehearsed by Jerome: “When the multitude of nations will come in, then this fig-tree [Israel], too, will bear fruit, and all Israel will be saved” (Jerome, Comm. on Habakkuk 3.17).
All Israel Will Be Saved
God has not rejected his beloved people of covenant (Rom. 11:1). A remnant of Israel has been chosen by grace (11:6) through whom “salvation has come to the Gentiles” (11:11). Out of Israel has come “riches for the world” (11:12). Even though the hearts of some were hardened to the good news (11:7), Israel continues to be loved by God (11:28), “for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” (11:29). God is using Israel’s hardening of heart as the precise instrument to catapult the gospel beyond Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
The hardening heart of Israel is always only partial and temporary, not absolute or unending. “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:25, 26, italics added; Irenaeus, Ag. Her. 4.2.7). “If the part of the dough offered as first-fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast” (Rom. 11:16–18; Clement of Alex., Strom. 6.15; Wollebius, RDB: 180, 181).
Ironic Juncture of Extreme Depravity and the Pretense of Security
Paul’s last known communication to Timothy declared, “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having the form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:1–5; Augustine, Sermons 229U). All these are signs of God’s coming judgment.
In the last days the world will be inundated with defiant wickedness (Matt. 24:12, 37–39; Luke 17:28–30). The air will be poisoned by deceit. Under these conditions the perishing will live under a “powerful delusion” that will cause them to “believe the lie” (2 Thess. 2:11). This depravity is to be accompanied by a pretense of extreme security, as in the days of Noah, and of Lot (Luke 17:26, 28). “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly” (1 Thess. 5:3; Origen, Comm. on Matt. 56).
The Appearance of False Prophets
Jesus taught that at the end “many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:11, 12). “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matt. 24:5).
False teachers will not only promote error but attempt to make error the standard teaching of the gathered community of faith. Attempts of the faithful to correct this error will call forth ridicule, contempt, and persecution. Every heresy has sought to make itself official teaching. In the end these efforts are expected to reach their most intense form in a “great apostasy” that will precede the Lord’s coming again.
Persecutions of the godly are to be expected (Mark 13:9; Rev. 11:7; 12:4; 13:7; 17:6; 18:24; 20:4). “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith, and will betray and hate each other” (Matt. 24:9, 10). This does not imply that each act of persecution is an indicator of an imminent end, but that each persecution points anticipatively toward the final end when God’s justice will be consummated. “In the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our fathers died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water” (2 Pet. 3:3–5; Oecumenius, Comm. on 2 Pet. 3.4).
The Lawless One
The lawless one will appear just before the final judgment. “And then the lawless one [anomos] will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow” (2 Thess. 2:8). “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing” (2 Thess. 2:9, 10; Augustine, CG 20.19.4).
The lawless one is the son of perdition who will devise a rebellion so oppressive as to be distinguished as the rebellion (he apostasia, 2 Thess. 2:3), where he will seek to be viewed as the equivalent of God, demanding worship of himself in the temple. “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess. 2:3, 4; Chrysostom, Hom. on 2 Thess. 3).
All that restrains this lawlessness is the patient mercy of the triune God. “And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way” (2 Thess. 2:6, 7). Both Chrysostom and Augustine regarded the Roman Empire as a form of this restraining influence (Chrysostom, Hom. on Thess. 4; Augustine, Tractates on John 29.8).
What Second Thessalonians referred to as the man of sin and lawless one is the same one whom John called the antichristos or pseudo-Christ (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3), the archenemy of humanity who in the last days will be inspired by Satan to deceive the nations and persecute the saints (2 Thess. 2:3–12; 2 John 4; Matt. 24:5, 24; Hippolytus, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist).
The time of apostasy reaches its culmination in the Antichrist, portrayed in Revelation 13 as a blasphemous beast. Many false teachers were called “anti-Christs”—those who embodied a spirit in opposition to Christ (1 John 2:18, 22; 2 John 7; Athanasius, LCHS 2.9) at loose already in the world (1 John 4:3). These are a collective designation for apostates and false teachers who gather under a single head, a prototypical Antichrist (Dan. 7:25; Barnabas 4.4–13).
Prototypical apostates have in various periods been identified by various interpreters as the singular Antichrist: Nero and Valerian particularly in the Roman period (Commodianus, Instructions 41; Lactantius, DI 6. 17; Athanasius, Hist. Arians 77; Jerome, Comm. on Dan. 7.8), Genseric in the Vandal period, Mohammed after the Arab conquest, the Cathari and Albigenses in the Middle Ages, the corrupted papacy by Reformation writers, and in the modern period notably Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.
The aggressive denial of Jesus as the Christ is the key characteristic of the Antichrist (1 John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7; Hippolytus, Fragments of Commentaries, Daniel). The Antichrist concentrates in himself the whole history of apostasy (Cyprian, Letters 51). Though a mystical number (666) is attached to his name, Irenaeus warned that the number is capable of being fitted to many names so it is unwise to draw rash conclusions from the number (Irenaeus, Ag. Her. 5.28–30). “The Abomination of Desolation is the image of the emperor which he set up in Jerusalem; so will it be in the days of Antichrist, who will set up his image in all the churches of the world” (Hippolytus, Comm. on Matt.; cf. Eusebius, Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2; 3.7).
Disturbances in Nature and History
The apocalyptic prophecies of Mark 13 (cf. Matt. 24 and Luke 21) are taken by ancient exegetes to refer to the end events. They are expected to include famines and earthquakes as “the beginning of birth pains” (Matt. 24:7, 8), the obscuring of sun and moon by the brightness of his glory, the falling of stars from heaven, with the powers of heaven being shaken (Matt. 24:27–29), eclipses, changes in the heavens, and other extraordinary natural disturbances (Origen, Comm. on Matt. 39–56; Tertullian, Ag. Marcion 3.3).
Unrestrained sedition, famine, and pestilence are signs of the end. “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matt. 24:6, 7; Luke 21:9–11). “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).
However ambiguous may be the struggle between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the world within history, at the end of history God’s glory and judgment will be made fully clear to all. Meanwhile “we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Paul felt deep affinity with “all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8).
The end time will reveal that the Word spoken in Jesus’ life and death was the Word spoken from the beginning of history, and will be the same Word spoken at the end of history (John 1:1–3; Rev. 22:13). With this consummation what was already a completed work on the cross in justification will become a completed work in the continuing body of Christ in sanctification. All other historical powers will be judged in the light of the last power.
The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha and omega) were used to symbolize the beginning and end. Christ is the Alpha and Omega of all things (Rev. 22:13), the one “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8). The consummation brings to final fulfillment what was begun in creation and having fallen was renewed in the incarnation.
Countering Simplistic Historical Optimism
However debatable may be the references to the final abomination, Antichrist, and lawlessness, they sharply resist the illusion of an ever-increasing, progressive, immanentally developing justice growing naturally from within history itself (John of Damascus, OF 4.26). Such naïveté about history contradicts too much historical experience. The New Testament rather is braced for a period of tribulation at the end when the faithful will be under unprecedented attack (Mark 13:3–23; 2 Thess. 2:1–3; Rev. 12:13–18).
Fallen human nature does not change within the deadly clutches of the history of sin, even though history itself is replete with change. Even the most impressive technological “advances” (nuclear energy, microchips, medicine, scientific experimentation, globalization) can be distorted by the self-assertive will, no matter how well intended. Far from decreasing evil, technology may tend to increase and complicate the power of evil. The past century has shown that it is folly to imagine that greater scientific knowledge will eliminate sin.
Instead of moving toward a benign utopia, the history of sin is moving toward a cataclysmic struggle out of which will come, by grace, a cosmic transformation—a new heaven and a new earth. Only after this ordeal can it be announced that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev. 11:15).
The Heavenly Colony
The present church is viewed by analogy as a colony of citizens in a faraway land whose loyalties and affections remain closely attached to their future home, for “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there,” who “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20; Marius Victorinus, Comm. on Phil. 3.21).
In this alienated world the full life of the community of faith is as yet incompletely realized. Her essential unity is fragmented. Her holiness is stained by apostasy. Her apostolicity is racked by heresies. Her catholicity is blocked from full presence in all the world. These conditions may last until “the end of the age” (Matt. 13:40), while in the interim wheat and tares grow tangled together (Matt. 13:30).
But on that day the Lord himself will come to free and save the beleaguered faithful. The church is actively awaiting that day, able to survive its darkest hours because of that hope. The faithful community desires his coming, fervently expects it, rejoices that God has promised to complete his purpose in history and make his victory finally known throughout the world.
Ethical Imperatives Embedded in the Parousia Expectation
All exhortations concerning the end are intended to have a practical, ethical meaning: to call persons to current responsibility. Whatever we do now will stand under the judgment of God at the end. All injustices that occur in ongoing history are in the process of being finally brought to correction in the presence of the holy God at the last day (2 Pet. 3:10–12; 1 John 3).
We are therefore to be prudent and watchful, for we know not on what day the Lord comes (Matt. 24:42). He will come unexpectedly, as a thief in the night (Matt. 24:43; 1 Thess. 5:1, 2), with the suddenness and unexpectedness of a flash of lightning (Matt. 24:27, 39, 44). The prayer of the early Christian communities, “Come O Lord” (1 Cor. 16:22; Rev. 22:20; Didache 10:6), was a prayer for justice.
Each hearer is called to live life as if the final day were overhanging: “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door” (Matt. 24:32–34; cf. Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32). He shall come “to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:27).
After gathering the faithful from the world over (Mark 13:27), he will lead them to the throne of the Father in heaven. The church will be presented in her perfected form after the removal of unworthy members. Angelic agents “will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil” (Matt. 13:41, 42).
All creation is viewed as awaiting this consummation. “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed,” when “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom. 8:19–21). There is an intimate link between the groaning of creation and the groaning of the faithful, for “we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23).
The expectation of a messianic earthly reign of a thousand years was much debated before the time of Jesus in the writings of late Judaic apocalypticism. It held a strong conviction that the world as we know it is being readied for the consummation of God’s purpose (1 Enoch 91, 93; Pss. of Solomon 17–18; 2 Esdras 7:28 ff.; 12:34; Apocalypse of Baruch 29:1–8).
Though Jesus did not condone the idea of a coercive political kingdom, he did lead his disciples to expect a spiritual kingdom sharply distinguishable from the kingdoms of this world. The New Testament actively employed vibrant images from the Jewish apocalyptic tradition to interpret its own messianic history. Crucial among these was the metaphor of a thousand-year reign in which Satan would be bound.
The millennium (a thousand years) is the time when the Messianic Deliverer is expected to reign on earth (Isa. 2:3; Dan. 7:14; Zech. 14:9). In this time it is expected that Satan will be restrained (Rev. 20:2), that righteousness and peace will come to the whole world (Isa. 11:3–5; 2:4), and that the fruitfulness of the earth will increase abundantly (Isa. 35:1, 2).
Revelation 20 is the source text for much of the highly symbolic hope. Since the millennial teaching is found preeminently (some say exclusively) in this passage, it should be conceded that it is hazardous to make a symbolic passage the principle of interpretation for all other relatively nonsymbolic passages. The main questions of millennialism hinge on the extent to which the texts point plainly or symbolically to an earthly reign of Christ, and whether that earthly reign will occur before or after his glorious return.
There remains a lack of consensus on interpretation of key millennial passages. The scripture texts admit of different doctrinal formulations, sequences, and explanations. Three views have continued over the centuries to compete as normative interpretations, but the entire discussion that follows has difficulty claiming the kind of firm consensuality over the whole of Christian history that we seek to identify in this study. The three persisting views are:
Realized millennialism holds that the millennium has already occurred or is occurring. Postmillennialism holds that the return will occur after the thousand year respite. Premillennialism holds that the return will occur before the millennium.
Realized Millennialism
Realized millennialists contend that the millennium is either an already present or an emerging reality. The millennium is now being fulfilled on earth. There is to be no future literal-political earthly kingdom besides the fruits that are already beginning to be borne. Rather the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world will continue in a mixed fashion until the Lord’s return.
In this view, the presently ongoing millennial age will conclude with Christ’s return and judgment. There is in this view resistance to detailed speculative explanations of present history as the fulfillment of specific prophecies.
Augustine discussed Revelation 20:1–10 in some detail in the City of God (20.7–14), reasoning by analogy of faith with other passages of scripture that the millennial kingdom is best viewed as the present Christian era wherein the powers of evil are already being restrained and the church being given time to proclaim the gospel. The strongman Satan is being bound up by Christ on the cross and in the descent into the netherworld (Luke 11:21–23; Mark 3:27; Augustine, Sermon 259.2). Ultimately, “to the strong, even the devil is weak” (Ambrose, Of the Holy Spirit 1.intro.2), though penultimately he may be permitted to rage before his final collapse.
During this postresurrection period the gospel is being preached with the hope that Christ will increasingly reign in human hearts. The millennial respite is not to be awaited but has already begun. The church constitutes the proximate firstfruits of the kingdom of God on earth (Augustine, Enchiridion 111).
Augustine’s view became prototypical for much Western Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. When the glorious return did not occur in the year AD 1000, the idea of millennium increasingly became viewed symbolically as a long though unspecified period of time. One prevailing interpretation by the Reformers was that the fury of Satan was loosed on the early church during the first three centuries of persecution, after which came the period of Constantine when a relative peace (pax Romana) was given, which prevailed for a thousand years, roughly until about AD 1300, when the Ottoman Turkish empire emerged to end that peace (Gerhard, LT 20; Schmid, DT: 651, 652) and the ecclesial establishment became vastly corrupted.
Among different types of realized millennial views were those of Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Dionysius, Tyconius, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and much classic Reformation and Counter-Reformation teaching. Consensual Lutheran teaching was well attested by Quenstedt: “Since the second advent of Christ, the general resurrection, the final judgment, and the end of the world are immediately united, and one follows the other without an interval of time, it is manifest that, before the completion of the judgment, no earthly kingdom, and life abounding in all spiritual and bodily pleasure, as the Chiliasts or Millenarians dream, is to be expected” (Quenstedt, TDP 4:649).
The term chiliasm (from the Greek word for thousand, chilioi) was sometimes used to refer to the teaching that focused especially upon sensual indulgence in an earthly kingdom of a thousand years. Eusebius attributed this idea to Cerinthus, a Gnostic of the first century (CH 3.28). Among those rejected by the Augsburg Confession for this interpretation were “Papias, Joachim (Abbot of Fiora), the Fanatics and Anabaptists, Casper von Schwenkfeld, and others” (Augsburg 17, 4).
Why Was One Thousand a Sacred Number?
Thomas Aquinas thought that the “thousand years” of Revelation 20:2 referred to “the whole time of the Church in which the martyrs as well as other saints reign with Christ, both in the present Church which is called the kingdom of God, and also—as far as souls are concerned—in the heavenly country; for ‘the thousand’ means perfection, since it is the cube whose root is ten, which also usually signifies perfection” (SCG 4:329; cf. Augustine, CG 20.6–8).
Though Protestants generally reject the uncritical identification of the church with the kingdom of God, the same point is made by Protestants such as B. B. Warfield, who held that the millennium was symbolic of the condition of the bliss of the redeemed in heaven, hence not to be interpreted literally as an earthly-historical reign. “The sacred number seven in combination with the equally sacred number three forms the number of holy perfection ten, and when this ten is cubed into a thousand the seer has said all he could say to convey to our minds the idea of absolute completeness” (Warfield, Biblical Doctrines: 654).
The Critique of Millennialism by Amillennial Teaching
This position is sometimes called amillennialism, suggesting the absence of or lack of interest in the millennium, but the term is a misnomer, since this position does not argue against a millennium but that there is to be expected no future literal, earthly-historical millennium that is not already present in some form. Both pre- and post-millennial positions reject realized millennialism for failing to view the millennium sufficiently seriously as a biblical promise to be literally fulfilled in history.
According to the realized view, the millennium of Revelation 20 is not to be read as a literal thousand years but an indefinite symbolic period of the church age. These exegetes note that the thousand-year reign is not mentioned apart from the most symbolic of all books of the New Testament, the Revelation (Henry, CWB 6:1179–81). “The Apocalypse is a prophetic book, full of most abstruse visions, as well as allegorical and quasi-enigmatical forms of speech, difficult to be understood, and therefore to be expounded according to the analogy of the faith, based upon clear and perspicuous Scripture passages” (Hollaz, in Schmid, DT: 653).
“Sound exegesis requires that the obscure passages of Scripture be read in the light of the clearer ones, and not vice versa” (Berkhof, ST: 715). “It is not proper to construct a dogma alone from a book concerning whose canonicity there has been such extended dissent, and to make it the standard whereby to interpret the plain language of books whose authority is more thoroughly established” (Jacobs, SCF: 516).
According to this view, premillenarianism depends too much “on the literal interpretation of a highly symbolic passage (Rev. 20:1–6). Among other leading Protestant spokespersons for realized millennialism are A. Kuyper, H. Bavinck, and G. Vos (see also A. Hoekema, The Bible and the Future, and Jay Adams, The Time Is at Hand) whose orthodoxy is seldom contested. These views are not to be confused with that realized eschatology which argues that Jesus did not expect a future Parousia (C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom; J. A. T. Robinson, Jesus and His Coming).
Postmillennial Teaching
Some postmillennialists have seemed to appear as historical optimists who believe in the triumph of the gospel in human society (S. J. Case, The Millennial Hope; H. F. Rall, Modern Premillennialism and the Christian Hope). Many have a gradualist and progressive view of the coming kingdom, wherein Christ is gradually coming more and more to reign upon the earth and will come when that process has come to completion. Postmillennialists expect history to get better, not worse.
Postmillennialism means that Christ will return after the gospel has been preached to all and has taken full effect among the nations. The glorious return will occur after the millennial kingdom has been established.
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The postmillennial sequence is conceived as follows: |
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World |
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Kingdom |
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Christ’s |
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Resurrection |
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Eternity |
The petition “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is expected as a growing world-historical condition. It is expected that the will of God will be done on earth either literally for a thousand years or figuratively for a long period of time. The “thousand years” is sometimes (as in realized millennialism) taken symbolically. This position is much like realized millennialism except that the latter does not expect a future earthly reign of Christ distinguishable from the present church age. Among varied representatives of postmillennialism are Joachim of Fiora, Daniel Whitby, Cocceius, Witsius, and Rauschenbusch (Rauschenbusch, Theology for the Social Gospel; cf. Hodge, ST 3:861–68; Strong, ST 3:1010).
Instead of portraying history as progressively improving, opponents of postmillennialism argue that the New Testament tends rather to see the time immediately before the end as one characterized by apostasy, persecution, and suffering (Matt. 24:6–14; 2 Thess. 2:3–12; 2 Tim. 3:1–6; Rev. 13). In the light of human self-assertiveness, it has seemed excessively optimistic to many readers of scripture to assert that an earthly messianic kingdom would directly emerge out of the shambles of the history of sin, or that peace would reign under the present conditions of finite history. To argue that the gospel will permeate society in the present age runs against the grain of those parables of the kingdom that do not look for universal acceptance of Christ in this age. The Augsburg Confession rejected the view that “before the resurrection of the dead, saints and godly men will possess a worldly kingdom” (art. 17).
Premillennial Teaching
The following more complicated sequence is fairly typically envisioned by premillennial teachers (with some variation among interpreters):
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Before the Millennium: |
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Evangelization of the world |
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Apostasy and tribulation |
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Antichrist |
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Armageddon |
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Parousia (before the millennium, hence premillennial) |
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First resurrection of dead saints |
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Transfiguration of living saints |
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Translation to meet the coming Lord |
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When the Millennial Kingdom Is Established: |
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Antichrist slain or restrained |
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Restoration of Israel |
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The nations turn to God |
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Millennial peace |
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After a Thousand Years: |
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Satan unrestrained |
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Satan’s final revolt fails |
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Second resurrection: unjust raised |
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Last judgment |
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New heaven and earth |
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Eternity |
Most premillennialists expect a literal fulfillment of the unconditional promises made to Abraham and David. Most current dispensational premillennialists expect Christ to return bodily for an earthly reign of a thousand years or its equivalent. They expect Christ to return before the millennium to institute the kingdom promised to David. “At the close of this age pre-millennialists believe that Christ will return for his church meeting her in the air (this is not the Second Coming of Christ), to establish his kingdom on earth for a thousand years, during which time the promises to Israel will be fulfilled” (C. Ryrie, The Basis of the Premillennial Faith: 12).
Scriptural Grounds for Positing a First and a Second Resurrection: Revelation 20
Most references (excepting Rev. 20) assume only one resurrection—that of the just and the unjust (Matt. 25:46; Acts 24:15; cf. Luke 14:14). The key text positing two resurrections is found in John’s vision of the saints who “came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:5, 6).
On this ground, premillennialists posit two future resurrections with a thousand years between them (Erickson, ST 3:1214 ff.). At the conclusion of the millennium, Satan, having been restrained for a thousand years, will be loosed to make a final assault on the kingdom of God, only to fail: “When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth” (Rev. 20:7, 8).
Realized millennialists interpret this text differently, viewing the “first resurrection” as repentance, faith, baptism, and spiritual regeneration, and the second as the general resurrection. “All the just who live during this time have a first resurrection by Baptism and reign with Christ so long as they are in the state of grace; and they have a second resurrection at the end of the world. Paralleling this is the first death by sin, and the second death in hell” (Trese, The Creed—Summary of the Faith; cf. Augustine, CG 20.6–7).
Ancient Christian Premillennial Teaching
Irenaeus expressed a premillennial view characteristic of the first three centuries: The present world would endure six thousand years (analogous to the six days of creation), after which there would be a period of suffering and apostasy that would accelerate until the coming of the Antichrist, seated in the temple of God. The entire apostate throng is headed up by the Antichrist, “recapitulating in himself the diabolic apostasy” (Irenaeus, Ag. Her. 5.25.1), whereupon Christ will appear, the saints will be resurrected, and the kingdom will be established on earth for another thousand years, the seventh millennium (Ag. Her. 5.28.3; 33.2).
This seventh millennium corresponds to the seventh day of creation, when God re-creates the world and the righteous, thus hallowing the last day of the world’s week as a millennium of rest and peace. For one day with God is as a thousand years (Ps. 90:4). A new city of God, a new Jerusalem, would then become the center of a new period of peace and righteousness (Matt. 26:29; Irenaeus, Ag. Her. 5.33.3, 4). At the end of this thousand-year reign, the final judgment will occur, a new creation will make way for eternity (Ag. Her. 5.36.1). The dawning of the eighth day was for the Letter of Barnabas analogous to the Christian’s Lord’s Day, the day on which Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven (15.5–9).
Premillennialism was the dominant position among the ante-Nicene Fathers, Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 80.1), the Pastor of Hermas, the Letter of Barnabas, Irenaeus (Against Heresies), Methodius (On the Resurrection), Commodianus (Instructions 44, 4), and Tertullian (Ag. Marcion 3.24).
By the time of the Decree of Gelasius, AD 493 (SCD 161–66), several of the ante-Nicene teachers with premillennialist assumptions were being regarded as inadequate in various ways: Lactantius, Nepos, Commodianus, and Victorinus of Pettau. Among those who earlier had resisted certain aspects of premillennial exegesis were Clement of Alexandria, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Athanasius. Premillennialism was more fundamentally challenged by Origen, Augustine, and the Greek Fathers, who argued that the millennial kingdom had begun with the incarnation. Among Protestant advocates of premillennialism are Bengel, Irving, van Oosterzee, Ellicott, Darby, the Adventists, Christadelphians, Plymouth Brethren, and a host of contemporary evangelical interpreters.
Parousia and Rapture in Dispensationalism
Recent premillennialism has increasingly become wedded to dispensationalism in many evangelical circles (as seen in Darby, Scofield, and Gaebelein, but with some exceptions such as R. H. Gundry and G. E. Ladd). Dispensationalists may divide the return of Christ into two events that occur in different spheres: his coming for the saints (the rapture—in the air) and his coming with the saints (the day of the Lord—on the earth).
The first of these is the Parousia, his coming for the saints (1 Thess. 4:15, 16), which results in the rapture of the saints, when Christ does not come to the earth but remains in the upper air, when both those who have died in the Lord and living saints are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Key text: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up [harpage-sometha, seized, snatched] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). By this means the faithful will be united with the coming Lord and transformed into the same resurrected state as the heavenly communion of saints. A sudden removal of the faithful connected with the Lord’s coming is suggested in Matthew 24:40–41 (= Luke 17:34, 35), where of two men in the field, one shall be taken and the other left, and of two women grinding, one is taken and the other left.
This coming is followed, according to many dispensationalists, by a seven-year period in which the signs of the end occur (the gathering of Israel, the great tribulation, and the Antichrist). After this interval is another coming of the Lord with the saints in which he returns to earth.
Those who object argue that it is doubtful that the texts intend to refer to two distinct comings, because Parousia and “day of the Lord” are used interchangeably (2 Thess. 2:1, 2, 8; 2 Pet. 3), and because the coming of the Lord at which the elect are gathered is represented as following the tribulation (Matt. 24:29–31; Berkhof, ST: 696); hence it is argued that the second coming is a single event.
Social Implications of Millennial Tendencies
There are often ethical-political-ideological tendencies and implications in each of these alternative millennial theories. Postmillennialism, as typified by Arminian-Wesleyan and social gospel exegesis, has taken a more transformationist view of the civil and political order, tending to see the church as actively engaged in the responsibility to change society in conformity with the divine claim. The political tendency is toward active transformation of society from injustice to justice as an act of eschatological accountability. Premillennialism, as typified by much recent Reformed dispensational exegesis, tends toward a more realistic ordering of politics toward the restraint of evil that is not likely to diminish until the Lord’s return.
Realized millennialism, as typified by Augustinian exegesis, has tended to identify the millennial kingdom with the church herself, and her sacramental life as the extended incarnation of Christ in history. The political tendency is toward a closer linkage of an established church with state protection. Postmillennialism blends more easily with Arminian synergism, whereas premillennialism blends more easily with Calvinism’s stress on the divine decrees.
Postmillennialism held sway during the period of nineteenth-century optimism, and tended to recede with the disillusionment of utopian idealism after World War I. Postmillennialism has flourished in periods in which the church seemed to be succeeding in its worldwide mission, and receded in periods in which that mission seems to be faltering.
Against the historical optimism of postmillennial gradualists (who expect history to get better), the relative historical pessimism of pre-millennialism holds that the millennium will begin with a sudden cataclysmic event only after history has seriously deteriorated. Christ will come only when things get maximally worst. Premillennialists expect history to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Only after Christ personally comes will there be millennial peace, universal harmony in nature and history.
Which position is correct? There is no ecumenical consensus. The Vincentian method arguably points more toward realized millennialism than its alternatives, but not with much confidence (for other views, see G. Ladd, The Blessed Hope; M. Erickson, Contemporary Options in Eschatology; L. E. Froom, The Conditional-ist Faith of Our Fathers). The “already/not yet” tension in the texts accounts for much of the potential for diverse interpretation (Phil. 3:12; 2 Thess. 2:7; 1 John 3:2; Rev. 2:25).
In the Apostles’ Creed the community of faith confesses that Christ “shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed affirms, “He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead” (Creed of the 150 Fathers). The Eastern Form of the Apostles’ Creed confesses the one who, having ascended, “comes in glory to judge the living and the dead, of whose kingdom there will be no end” (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses, SCD 9).
At his “coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works” (Quicunque Creed). This is the concluding event of world history. What happens “after” final judgment is not history, but a new creation. By this event the remedial dispensation is ended. There is no more time for choosing, only for the consequences of choosing.
The Final Crisis
The topics ahead are: the last assize, the mediatorial judge, the universality of judgment, the charge, inquiry, sentence, and execution of sentence. These teachings comprise the doctrine of the last judgment. They are familiar to all who have sung the hymns of the church, joined in its liturgy, read its poetry, and heard its sacred texts read in worship.
Krisis (judgment) implies a crossroads: a discrimination, a separation, a parting of the ways (John 12:31; Heb. 9:27). It is to such a final juncture that every person comes on the last day (Augustine, CG 20.27–30; Sulpitius Severus, Life of St. Martin).
“The last judgment is the judicial act by which on the last day, immediately upon the resurrection of the dead, Christ in great majesty and glory will pronounce sentence on all men, will separate the elect from the reprobate, and adjudge the former to life eternal, the latter to unquenchable fire” (Bucanus, IT 28, 4; in Heppe, RD: 703). God will “judge the peoples with equity.” For “he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth” (Ps. 96:13).
On the last day there will be a full disclosure of the character and destiny of each free moral agent, and a decisive separation between the just and unjust. Who is making the judgment? The only one capable of making it. This judge is the searcher of all hearts, who “holds in his hand your life and all your ways” (Dan. 5:23), who knows intimately “everyone’s heart” (Acts 1:24).
It is difficult to imagine any Christian teaching more universally received than this. It is rejected chiefly by those who, having abandoned scriptural teaching, cherish the delusions of modern optimism. In this final court, sin is understood in its essence simply as unresponsiveness to God’s saving mercy revealed in history.
The Word of God is “sharper than any double-edged sword,” penetrating “even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13).
Coming, Sitting, Gathering, Separating
Four active verbs characterize the judging work of the Son as portrayed in the parable of the last judgment. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:31, 32, italics added).
The sequence of classical Christian reasoning follows along this same order: Parousia, the Judgment Seat, the Gathering for Judgment, and the Judgment itself.
The essential event of final judgment is a just separation of those who are to be with God eternally from those who are to be sent away from God’s presence (Irenaeus, Ag. Her. 5.27).
The Time of Judgment
When? Judgment follows the general resurrection of the just and unjust. The dead are raised in order to be judged. “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God” (1 Cor. 4:5, 6).
The final judgment in effect records the judgment that persons have already passed upon themselves by their conscience and their present relation to the Redeemer. “Whoever does not believe stands condemned already” (John 3:18).
The discerning conscience is already racing toward judgment: “The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them” (1 Tim. 5:24).
Judgment is portrayed not merely as a rational idea or mythical construct but an event. It is pictured as happening on a particular “day of judgment” (John 5:28, 29; 2 Pet. 3:7), “that day” (Matt. 7:22; 2 Tim. 4:8), “when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2:5). “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed” (Acts 17:31).
How long is a day? Serious interpreters differ: Lactantius thought the “day” would last a thousand years (Div. Inst. 7.24). Thomas Aquinas thought that “the divine power will bring it about that in an instant everyone will be apprised of all the good or evil he has ever done” (Compend. of Theology, 244). However long, “God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Eccles. 12:14).
Judgment Entrusted to the One Who Was Judged
The decisive event is overseen by the triune God (Heb. 12:23; Rom. 2:5; Ps. 98:9)—whose judgment is sometimes ascribed to the Father (John 8:50; Acts 17:31; 1 Pet. 2:23) or to the Spirit (John 16:8), but most often portrayed as being personally administered by the God-man, Christ himself (Matt. 25:31, 32; Acts 10:42; Phil. 2:10), who knows our infirmities through his own experience (Heb. 2:18).
The Father “has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). The Father does not judge apart from the Son, but only in and through the Son (Hilary, Trin. 7.20). Mercifully, it is by true man (the Son of man who has fully shared the human condition, being tempted in every way) that humanity is judged. The theandric mediator is “the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42), to whom the Father has given “authority to judge because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:27).
This judge mercifully bears in his own body the marks of his passion for the adjudged. This judge is the man on the cross who has already been condemned for the sins of the world. Only God could reason in this way: It is he who “suffered under Pontius Pilate” who “shall come to judge.” It is uniquely fitting that the same God-man who came to save humanity from sin should be the judge of sin. We are judged by one who can empathize with our human condition and can understand the obstacles that make our lives so imperfect.
The mercy of the final judge is wholly just, and the justice of the judge incomparably merciful. Lacking either infinite mercy or justice, it could not be God’s judgment. These attributes are not contradictory but complementary, and best recognized as complementary on the cross. They are to be eternally united by insurmountable wisdom on the last day (Chrysostom, To the Fallen Theodore). The judgment will be final and unchangeable, with no appeal. After the last day there is no more time.
The faithful have no need to dread the final judgment. For “we are not to come before any other Judge than he who is our Advocate and who has taken our cause in hand” (Calvin, Geneva Catechism, Q87). The comfort of final judgment is “that in all affliction and persecution I may await with head held high the very Judge from heaven who has already submitted himself to the judgment of God for men and has removed all curse from me” (Heid. Catech., Q 52). Paul was confident that there was in store for him “a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Tim. 4:8).
The saints and martyrs and confessors—and indeed, all believers—will in some sense sit and judge empathically with Christ by concurrence (Matt. 19:28; 1 Cor. 6:2, 3; Rev. 20:4; Tho. Aq., ST supp., Q89.1; Wollebius, RDB: 185). “Those will judge with Him—sitting with the judge, as it were—who adhered to Him more than others”—the apostles—and “those who follow in the footprints of the Apostles” (Tho. Aq. SCG 4, ch. 96; Wisd. of Sol. 3:7 f.).
The Decisive Moral Significance of Final Judgment for Present Choices
Why final? Any judgment short of final judgment would risk being incomplete, hence unjust. After one dies, one’s influence continues. The deceased lives on in memory, reputation, progeny, and in the “projects on which he had set his heart.” For “no action can be fully assessed before it is finished and its results are evident.” “A full and public verdict cannot be pronounced and sentence passed while time rolls on its course” (Tho. Aq., ST 3a, Q59.5).
This is why there must be a final judgment at the end of history, and not only at many points within history. The effects of a given life are not known at the time of death. The evil consequences initiated by Hitler and Stalin continue to plague the world long after they are gone, and in generations yet unborn. It is therefore reasonable that the final judgment be rendered only after all accounts of all historical agents are in, namely, at the end time. Good and evil deeds “continue to extend their influence throughout all time as a stone thrown into the water creates successive and ever widening circles” (Jacobs, SCF: 530). These influences are only known by God’s omniscience, hence only revealed at the final judgment.
The incomparable justice of God requires a final judgment, for in this life many if not most evils remain unjudged or crudely judged (Pss. 103:10; 92:7; Luke 6:24, 25; Rom. 9:22). If justice is inadequately fulfilled in this present life, surely another life, another sphere, another city is required to perfect it, as even Kant rightly reasoned. Kant rightly concluded that some future judgment was rationally required by the disparity between conscience and historical injustice (Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Morals). He argued that ethics is “not really the doctrine of how to make ourselves happy but of how we are to be worthy of happiness” (Critique of Practical Judgment 2.2.5).
Thus only the end of history could be the proper time for final judgment when all things are “brought to their end” (Tho. Aq., ST supp., Q88.1). We intuitively hypothesize from conscience that more fitting and impartial justice must somehow follow, even if we cannot now behold it.
We weary the Lord by repeatedly asking, “Where is the God of justice?” (Mal. 2:17). Scripture rather points us toward a final judgment beyond history wherein God will answer all human queries about the course of justice (Chrysostom, Hom. on the Statues).
Whether God Acts Justly by Leaving Time for Repentance
Suppose God had provided no time for repentance, and no time for grieving over the consequences of sin—would the world be a better place? There must be some learning time between sin and judgment if God is to provide time for the consequences of sin to be experienced and duly grieved over (2 Pet. 3:9). Sometimes it takes a very long time for the consequences of sin to be realized and corrected.
Suppose the contrary, that God might have created a world in which no time whatever was provided between sin and its punishment. That would have reduced sin drastically, but would have given less opportunity for the free playing out of conscience and responsibility. God apparently opted for the conditions of freedom that now prevail in human creation—human self-determination that has repercussions in succeeding generations. Without positing the very freedom that risks falling into sin, human existence would be reduced to involuntary determinism. The person would hardly be distinguishable from a billiard ball, lacking the capacity for the self-determination and divine-human dialogue that God permits and desires through prayer.
How Conscience Anticipates Final Judgment
These conditions make it necessary to conclude that the full and adequate judgment of sin cannot rightly occur before death, and that final judgment cannot occur before the end of history. The forms of judgment of sin that do occur before death are often roughly conceived and prejudicially framed. Hence this-worldly justice, however important, cannot be finally or irreversibly decisive for the eternal destiny of the person in the presence of God.
Much modern consciousness, to the contrary, following Hegel, Schelling, Marx, and Nietzsche has insisted on viewing moral judgment as entirely immanental within historical processes. The classical Christian consensus viewed final judgment as distinguishable from the continuing judging activity of God in and through history. God is at work within history as Judge, but that work in itself must be completed beyond history if the apparent absurdities of history are to become meaningful.
So conscience awaits final judgment (Acts 24:25). Meanwhile in time our own moral self-awareness compels us constantly to pass judgment on our own actions to assess their rightness or culpability. We may be either too harsh on ourselves or too lenient, but the all-merciful One who judges us finally in the end will judge according to an omniscient justice higher than conscience. This justice has already been demonstrated on the cross.
The correspondence between conscience and final judgment is set forth in this powerful testimony from John’s epistle: “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God” (1 John 3:19–21).
The Moral Meaning of Freedom Vindicated at the End
There is no meaningful freedom in a moral universe without positing some sort of final accountability and judgment. This makes each person responsible to the Giver of life for the consequences of his or her personal decisions. Jews and Christians know with moral certainty that they will be judged, not what the outcome will be, which is in God’s hands. In this way the certainty of final judgment impinges powerfully upon current moral behavior, and upon conscience. It may cause discomfort, as it did in the case of Felix when Paul “discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come” (Acts 24:25).
The conclusion of the drama of a personal history remains unknown until after this life is closed. What could be more dramatic? “Man knows not his own end” (Eccles. 9:12).
No further appeal can be made after history’s last act. There is no time for another scene. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the final word on that day will not pass away. The audience of the drama is finally all who have ever lived in history, gathered together on the final day (Nicene Creed, SCD 54; Lateran Council, SCD 255; Council of Toledo XI, SCD 287).
Those Who Still Love Darkness Are Hardly Ready for the Light
The work of judging is best viewed in relation to the primary mediatorial work of the Redeemer. Christ “did not come to judge the world, but to save it” (John 12:47). This does not imply that Christ has no judging functions, as is evident from the next verse: “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day” (John 12:48).
Luther commented: “A physician says to a sick man: ‘I want you to get well, I cannot save your life; but I want to help to do it.’ But if the sufferer will not allow this or accept his services as doctor, the latter says: ‘Now I will not talk to you as your doctor, but, because you compel me, I must be your judge and say: You are going to die’” (EA 48:294).
Though God desires the salvation of all, God does not coerce the will of the unjust to accept divine mercy. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). “For judgment I have come into this world” (John 9:39), yet judgment as such is never the primary purpose of his coming but the consequence of ignoring his saving activity (John 3:17; Mark 4:12; Isa. 6:9).
Individual Judgment: Each One According to Deeds
Conscience is the inward bar of judgment. All rational persons are already “a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them” (Rom. 2:15, 16). What happens penultimately in conscience happens ultimately in final judgment: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).
No one can serve as conscience for another. Finally each conscience is called to account, one by one. All are accountable for the moral use of whatever capacities are given them, not merely to themselves, but to the Giver of these gifts (Tho. Aq., ST 3 supp., Q89; Pearson, EC: 300–304).
“Each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:10, 12). Basil thought it “likely that by an inexpressible power, every deed we have done will be made manifest to us in a single moment, as if it were engraved on a tablet” (Basil, Comm. on John 1.18). It will then be clear to all whether one is prepared to live in the presence of God. “In the day when God shall judge, each one’s conscience will bear witness to him, and his thoughts will accuse and defend him” so that all merits and demerits will be seen at a single glance (Tho. Aq., ST supp., Q87; Job 8:22). “A kind of divine energy will come to our aid, so that we shall recall all of our sins to mind” (Augustine, CG 20).
Whether God Remembers Forgiven Sin
That the judgment of all unrepented sin will be visible and will appear to all is taught for these reasons: for the glory of God, that the justice and mercy of God may be manifested; that the promises of God may be fulfilled; that the godly may be exalted and Christ glorified; and that all things may be fitly judged before the conclusion of history (Gerhard, LT 18, 35; Leiden Synopsis 51, 55).
But those who live in Christ have discovered that their sins are already blotted out, cast into the depths of the sea, remembered no more by God (Isa. 43:25; Jer. 31:34; Ezek. 18:22). Their sins have already been removed as far as is east from west (Ps. 103:12).
What has been already forgiven will not be called to account on the last day (Turretin, ITE 22.6.17). “For it is the part of an advocate not to publish, but to cover” (Jacobs, SCF: 525). In him there is no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). Whoever “hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned” (John 5:24).
Those whose lives are hid in Christ will stand in this judgment without spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5:27). The father receives the prodigal without making a long list of wayward behaviors (Luke 15:20). If the godly recall their own sin, it will be to praise God’s mercy.
The Full Disclosure of Mixed Motives
The final divine investigative judgment focuses on the moral truth left unrecognized amid historical ambiguities. Thomas astutely reasoned, “A judicial investigation is not necessary unless good and evil actions are intermingled. When good is present without admixture of evil, or evil without admixture of good, discussion is out of place.” (Tho. Aq., Compend. of Theology, 243). Hence both the perfectly good and perfectly wicked are judged without further inquiry. But if some have faith but lack charity, or in cases where faith and charity are diluted by excessive attachments, an examination of complex circumstances is required by divine justice.
Because feelings and motives affect conduct, especially when formed into reinforced habits and cherished dispositions, these are fit matters to be subjected to judgment (1 Cor. 4:5; Longer Catech., Eastern Orthodox Church, 231). The purpose of examination is not that the judge may receive new information, for all things are already known by God. Rather the investigative judgment clearly makes known to each person why each is judged as a whole faithful or unfaithful, the former rejoicing in God’s mercy and the latter acceding to God’s justice.
Sins of Omission and Commission
Not only deeds are judged but words, which have such powerful effects in human relationships. Those who write or speak words (including the many of this book) will “give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken” (Matt. 12:36; cf. James 3:2).
Both what we do and what we neglect doing are subject to final judgment. For the habits we willfully neglect to amend, we remain responsible. For our negligence by which others are harmed, we are responsible. The entire range of conduct and character of every human being is subject to investigative judgment—every word, thought, and deed (Matt. 12:36, 37).
But on the last day, love will cover a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8), for love is the pivotal feature of the Redeemer and the redeemed character. Acts of mercy to the defenseless will be recognized by the Just One, even if unrecognized by those who did them (Matt. 25).
Due judicial process consists in being fairly brought into a just court for the purpose of being charged, having one’s cause fairly examined, being judged, receiving sentence, and having the sentence executed. All these elements are embedded in the narratives of the last judgment (Matt 25:37).
The Standard of Judgment: According to One’s Deeds in the Body
The measure by which judgment proceeds is the holy will of God, equitably administered “according to what they had done, as recorded in the books” (Rev. 20:12). The metaphor of accurate records in detailed books is employed in scripture to portray the accuracy of the final accounting of those being judged (Rev. 20:12; cf. Ps. 50:21).
Some have greater responsibility, having received greater gifts; others less (Matt. 11:21–24; Rom. 2:12–16). The measure of light and truth granted will impinge upon final judgment. Those who have not heard the gospel will be judged by the law of their own nature, their conscience guided by their reason, and the law written in their hearts (Rom. 2:14, 15). Those who have Moses and the prophets are to be judged by a different standard than those without them (Matt. 11:24; Luke 12:48; 16:29), for “all who sinned under the law will be judged by the law” (Rom. 2:12). Those who have heard the Gospel will be judged “according to the Gospel,” the good news of God’s own righteousness in which they may share by faith.
Final judgment focuses upon whether one has been responsive or not to the gifts of God actually offered within the flow of time (Hugh of St. Victor, SCF: 464). The judgment finally comes down to whether one has or has not responded trustingly to God’s grace. The righteousness that saves is not “a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Phil. 3:9).
Judged According to, Not on Account of, Deeds
Divine mercy does not imply that good works are finally of no importance to God. The apostolic teaching is that all will be judged according to their works as they are fruits of faith, not on account of their works apart from faith (Wollebius, RDB: 184). “This explains in part the truth of the seemingly opposed propositions that our works cannot save us, and that we are to be judged and finally rewarded according to them. We are to be judged according to rather than on account of deeds” (non propter, sed secundum opera, Hall, DT 10:179).
The pivot remains: Did faith become active in love? Did the reception of God’s mercy express itself in deeds of mercy? Were the poor relieved, was charity shown toward all, were enemies forgiven? Faith is the engendering source and works the expression of the Christian life, assuming that your work is “produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope” (1 Thess. 1:3). The faithful are justified “by faith without the merit of works, and with the evidence of works” (Pope, Compend., 3:417).
Those who depart do so not merely by divine predetermination, but more so because of their own recalcitrant will. “A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7, 8).
The sinner is understood as the author of his own character, reaping the fruit of his own choices. Character molds destiny. Human freedom is divinely aided. But that does not diminish its quality as freedom. All self-determining beings are given grace adequate for taking free steps toward repenting and believing. It is the ongoing, growing direction of the character that makes the judgment irreversible, a crystallization due to moral choice, not coercion (Origen, OFP 2.10). This does not deny social or genetic or biological or cultural determinants, but focuses upon one’s own free response to all conceivable determinants.
The fundamental decision in a court is finally described simply: guilty or not guilty. Only two classes of response finally are provided: left or right, blessed or cursed. The sentence is either, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance,” or “Depart from me, you who are cursed” (Matt. 25:34, 41). The just are taken up into Christ’s presence, while the unjust depart from Christ’s presence.
Whether Judgment Is Event or Symbol
The picture of final judgment, by rough analogy with earthly courts, is a strong metaphor that intends to communicate the essence of a process that cannot be adequately pictured or imagined since it transcends time. The trumpet sounding, the Lord’s coming in the twinkling of an eye, the judge and the judgment, the separation of sheep and goats, the new Jerusalem—these are the “sound words” by which our inadequate perceptions are rightly oriented, despite their limitations.
Though symbolic language is constantly utilized by scripture to point to the final judgment, it would be a vast miscalculation to view final judgment as a nonevent or to reduce it to merely metaphorical status (Irenaeus, Ag. Her. 5.35). Nor is it wise to view final judgment as a continuing, immanental-historical process, as distinguished from an event effectively consummating history. Final judgment is an event that only God can enact. It is not reducible to our judgment of ourselves, hence not to be psychologized, politicized, or subjectivized. “Too late do they believe in eternal punishment who were unwilling to believe in eternal life” (Cyprian, To Demetrian 24).
The courtroom scene is not to be taken so woodenly that its figurative elements cannot be proportionally interpreted. The books to be opened on the last day are not literal books made with paper and ink; rather, the book of life is Christ in whom the faithful are hid (Phil. 4:3; Rev. 5:1–9; 13:8).
The judgment complete, the Lord will lead his own into glory, where they will reign with him forever (Council of Toledo XI, SCD 287). With the final judgment, the history of salvation comes full circle in the mode of eternal fulfillment. The work of the Holy Spirit in sanctifying what was begun in creation has come to completion. What was begun for the believer on the day of baptism, and what was begun for the church on the day of Pentecost, will have come to full consummation, the kingdom established (Matt. 25:34–40), the power of evil bound (Rev. 20:1–3).
How do the faithful prepare in time for final judgment? Each time the believer meets the living Lord in Word or Sacrament, the memory of Christ’s death is being kept until he comes. The faithful have Christ’s own word that he will raise those up on the last day who share in his body and blood by faith.
Three events of transformation exceed our understanding: creation, redemption, and consummation. The mode of each transformation remains a mystery of the triune God. To recall the promises of scripture regarding the consummation is not to forget its mystery.
Consummation: The End of the Age
History is not like Penelope’s tapestry, constantly being rewoven and constantly undone, in eternal recurrence. Nor is it like the myth of Sisyphus, who rolled the stone uphill only to have it roll forever down again. Rather Jews and Christians understand that history is characterized by the revelation of meaning through events in a linear trajectory that leads toward a final consummation, not the absurdity of eternal repetition.
End of the Age (Consummatio Saeculi)
“The things concerning Me have an end” (Luke 22:37). The final moment is a vanishing point in which all the rays of creation converge, only to become a new beginning point.
After judgment comes the end of this world, according to Jewish and Christian expectation, and the beginning of the future age. The present state is transcended, not to end the world as such, but to make a new world out of the old, a new heaven and new earth that will not pass away (Isa. 65:17). “For this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31).
The entire visible creation, implicated in the history of sin, is hastening toward a krisis in which its present form shall be dissolved and renewed. One who confesses the beginning of the world’s existence must necessarily look toward its final transformation (Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man 23). In the consummation God will be “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). “Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay” (Rom. 8:21). All things will be reconciled in him (Col. 1:20). God has promised to reestablish or gather up all things (literally re-head, sum up all things, anakephalaiōsasthai ta panta) in Christ (Eph. 1:10).
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matt. 24:35). The earth and heavens “will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end” (Ps. 102:26, 27). “The heavens have now their working-day clothes on; but then they will put on their Sunday robes” (Luther, in Jacobs, SCF: 534).
The Renewed Destiny of the Cosmos
The purpose of God in redemption is not merely to prolong creation quantitatively, but to redeem and perfect it qualitatively. This consummation has begun irreversibly in Jesus Christ. The consummation does not come by human action, political strategy, revolutionary planning, or evolution, but by God’s own completing activity. This does not mean that God’s kingdom lacks political consequences, or that there is therefore no need for peacemakers or the struggle for justice in history. Rather it means that however imperfect is our own struggle for peace and justice, it will be perfected by God’s own peace and justice finally beyond history. “Since the world was, in a way, made for man’s sake, it follows that, when man shall be glorified in the body, the other bodies of the world shall also be changed to a better state” (Tho. Aq, ST supp., Q74.1). On the assumption that the “dwelling should befit the dweller,” Thomas argued that the world was made to be humanity’s dwelling, so that when humanity is renewed, “the world will be likewise” (Tho. Aq., ST supp., Q91.1).
The regeneration of the human person takes place within the cosmic-historical context in which God’s plan is to renovate to its original unfallen condition. This final renovation is described in Paul’s letter to Romans, chapters 4–8, and in the apostolic preaching of Acts, where Christ is expected to “remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything” (Acts 3:17–21, italics added).
Believers do not simply pray for destruction, but the restoration of God’s will in creation. The earth was not simply demolished or destroyed in substance by the flood, but renewed with a rainbow promise. Similarly but on a more grand scale, “this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31) to make way for a cleansing and a new setting-in-order (Rom. 8:19–22; Rev. 21:1; Pope, Compend. 3:424). Yet this renovation requires a complete negation of all that has gone awry, not merely a rearranging of its present broken qualities (Ps. 102:26, 27; Isa. 51:6; Matt. 24:35; 2 Pet. 3:7, 10, 12). The scriptural metaphors here are “vanish like smoke,” “be dissolved,” “melt,” “burn,” “pass away,” and “be no more” (Wollebius, RDB: 188; Schmid, DT: 655). Is there something ecologically dangerous in the idea that the world is transitory? The answer is yes, if one systematically forgets that the transitory is also profoundly valuable, and the gift of God the Creator, given for human stewardship. But such forgetfulness would be a grotesque distortion of the intention of the Christian doctrine of creation.
Augustine held the balance correctly: “The form passes away but not the nature” (commenting upon 1 Cor. 7:31, in CCF: 350). Those who focus upon the end of the world without a new beginning distort the text. Those who rejoice in a new beginning without awareness of an end shrink the text. It is both a consummation and a new beginning. “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away’” (Rev. 21:1–4).
The Dross Consumed
The mode of the destruction of the old era is portrayed in scripture as fire. “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare” (2 Pet. 3:11; Tho. Aq., ST supp., Q74.3). There is a moral connection between this verse and the next: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be. You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God” (2 Pet. 3:12).
Fire is the most active of all the elements, tending “to consume the corruptible” (Tho. Aq., SCG 4:348). Gerhard’s conclusion: “Whether the fire be truly corporeal, material and visible, or incorporeal, immaterial and invisible, we leave unsettled (although we incline to the latter), and we earnestly pray God not to reveal this to us by knowledge gained from experience” (Gerhard, in Jacobs, SCF: 536). Those who miss the ironic wit of Gerhard are not awake.
As the first deconstruction and renovation of the world came by flood, the final purification will occur by fire (Isa. 66:15; Commodianus, Instructions 65). To say that the world was “destroyed” by the flood, however, means not that all life ended but that a new beginning was made—life with God is resuming according to God’s original will, similarly in the case of the “new earth.” “By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly men” (2 Pet. 3:7).
What is destroyed is ungodliness, not creation as such. This is not simple annihilation but purification and transformation. Fire is the consistent biblical symbol of the cleansing, purifying, sanctifying power of God’s holiness and justice. The fire of God’s holiness against sin is not to be quenched (Matt. 23:33; Mark 9:48). Fire is appointed for cleansing and renewing the world, not merely for annihilation (Irenaeus, Ag. Her. 5.36.1). The physical analogy is exact: “Combustion does not annihilate but only redistributes and rearranges particles of matter” (Jacobs, SCF: 534).