the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ," (2 Thess. i. 7, 8.)
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are
therein shall be burned up," (2 Pet. iii. 10.)
"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and
the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book
of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up
the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their
works," (Rev. xx. 11-13.)
WHO ARE TO BE JUDGED?
We reply, _men_ and _fallen angels_.
"We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." If the
government of Jesus Christ over men is to be revealed on that day, it
is clear that all men, without exception, must be judged. So linked,
indeed, is the history of each man with that of others,--as, for
instance, the tempter with the tempted, the oppressed with the
oppressor, the teacher with the taught, the child with the parent;--so
necessarily is each man's condition and character affected by that of
all who have gone before him, up to his first parents;--so truly do
all human beings make up _one_ race, _one_ family, from the life of
each being more or less connected with that of all, that the knowledge
of the real history of even one man, almost implies an examination
into the real history of the whole human race. And we shall possess,
for the first time, a true history of the whole world, when we truly
understand the history of each person, family, and kingdom in it; and
so also shall we possess the true history of each individual part,
only when we know its relationship to the great whole; and the history
of events, when we perceive what bearing they have had on the kingdom
of Jesus Christ, whose history is that of the world.
It has been questioned how far the sins of the people of God, which
have been for ever pardoned, are to be revealed at judgment. But we
see
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