Judgement Upon All the Ungodly - Glenn Conjurske
Judgement Upon All the Ungodly
Introduction
The Bible is very explicit concerning the fact that when Christ returns to earth, He will execute judgement upon all the ungodly—and this fact is fatal to the system of doctrines known as post-tribulationism. The fact of the universal judgement upon the ungodly is denied by some post-tribulationists, but most of them have apparently never thought so far as to realize its significance, and they simply ignore it. What I intend to do in this article is, first, to prove the universal destruction of the ungodly at the coming of Christ, and then to point out its necessary consequences for the post-tribulational system.
Scriptural Evidence for Universal Judgment
In the last chapter of the Old Testament we read, “Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven: and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” (Mal. 4:1-2). I suppose it were needless to attempt to prove that this scripture refers to the coming of Christ, for none doubt it, unless those who are altogether unfamiliar with the prophetic Scriptures. Its teaching is very explicit that all that do wickedly will be utterly destroyed in that day.
The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares
In the Lord’s interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares, we are told, “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father.” (Matt. 13:40-42). The same classes of men, and the same events, are set forth in these two passages. “You that fear my name” of Malachi 4 are “the righteous” of Matthew 13. They shall shine forth in the kingdom after the destruction of the wicked. “All that do wickedly” in Malachi 4 are “all…them which do iniquity” in Matthew 13. They shall be burned up, according to both scriptures. This is a sweeping, unsparing destruction, which leaves them neither root nor branch. Matthew explicitly defines the time of this judgement: “the end of this age” (aijwvn)—that is, the coming of Christ to execute judgement.
Enoch’s Prophecy
Enoch’s prophecy, as given in the book of Jude, is strong and explicit: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 14-15). We know that the issue of this judgement will be the complete destruction of all of the ungodly. Enoch’s prophecy (“the Lord cometh, with ten thousands of his saints”) cannot be fulfilled by anything except the actual and personal coming of Christ, yet there can be no question that the immediate type of its final fulfillment, which followed Enoch’s utterance of the warning, is to be seen in the flood of Noah’s day. This is often the way of Bible prophecy, to have an eye to both a near and a far fulfillment. Only observe, the near “fulfillment” is never properly a fulfillment of the prophecy, for the terms of the prophecies are never exhausted by those near fulfillments. They are rather to be regarded as types of the actual and final fulfillment. Such was Noah’s flood to the prophecy of Enoch, and precisely because of the similarity between the judgement of the flood and the judgement at Christ’s coming. Both are a judgement of living men, and issue in the complete destruction of all of the ungodly from off the face of the earth.
Noah’s Flood as a Type
Christ himself uses Noah’s flood as a type of the coming judgement. “And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:26-30).
Again, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matt. 24:37-39).
The Judgment of the Living
Twice the New Testament tells us that Christ will judge “the quick [the living] and the dead.” All of these scriptures which we have quoted refer to the judgement of the living, those who are alive in the flesh on the earth when Christ returns, and all of these scriptures explicitly teach that that judgement will be executed upon all. There are other scriptures which imply as much, without using the word “all,” such as: “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.” (II Thes. 1:7-8).
Old Testament Types
The Old Testament types speak the same thing, notably the flood and the judgement of Sodom, both judgements of the living, and types explicitly applied by Christ to the judgement at his coming. Another type, less explicit than these, but nonetheless clear enough to those familiar with the prophetic Scriptures, is found in Psalm 19:4-6. “In them he hath set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” The sun is a type of Christ in his coming to judge the world and establish his kingdom on the earth, as appears in the fourth chapter of Malachi, already quoted. The day which the sun brings to the earth typifies the earthly reign of Christ, the “kingdom come” for which the saints of all ages have prayed, when the will of God will be done in earth as it is now done in heaven (Matt. 6:10), and “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Is. 11:9). All of this presents the perfect contrast to the present age, which is the age of evil and darkness.
The Sun as a Type of Christ’s Judgement
The heat of the sun represents the unsparing judgement of that day “that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up.” (Malachi 4:1). Returning to the nineteenth Psalm, we see the sun “as a bridegroom”—an obvious reference to Christ, the bridegroom of the church. More: as a bridegroom “coming out of his chamber.” Now the chamber of the bridegroom is the marriage chamber, or as we would say in modern language, the bedroom. The fact that the bridegroom is represented as coming out of his chamber indicates that the marriage has taken place already. The bride has been raptured to heaven and united to her bridegroom. That being done, he comes out of the chamber to execute the judgements predicted throughout the prophetic Scriptures. Those who deny the truths of prophecy, whether it be the pretribulation rapture or the millennial reign of Christ, can find no sense or meaning in these words. If indeed they go deep enough into the text to concern themselves with the matter at all, it must remain a mystery to them why the Lord should represent the sun “as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber.” Types can only be recognized by those who know the truth which they represent. They are as a picture of an individual—readily recognized by those who know the person, but meaningless to all others. The type here speaks of Christ coming to execute universal and unsparing judgement, indicated by the words, “there is nothing hid from the heat thereof,” where most of the early English versions have “none” or “no man” rather than “nothing.”
The Universal Judgment of the Ungodly
We grant, however, that the type, however fitting and beautiful, proves nothing. Nor is there any need: the doctrine has abundant proof without the type. There is, however, one very plain New Testament scripture which gives a striking confirmation to this type. Luke 12:36 says, “And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.” Neither post-tribulationist nor amillennialist can make any sense of this. Even some pretribulationists have stumbled over it, trying to refer this text to the rapture of the church. In so doing, some of the early Plymouth Brethren had the effrontery to suggest that to return from the wedding meant to return to the wedding—an argument worthy of a weaker cause, and totally unnecessary for a pretribulationist. The very terms used in the text suggest that the coming spoken of is not the rapture of the church, though the same kind of watchfulness is enjoined upon the church: “ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, … that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately.” Why is the third person used, if this refers to the rapture of the church? The scene which follows also, in verse 37, evidently belongs to the millennial kingdom: “he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” Every premillennialist believes that the scene in the next chapter, where “they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29), belongs to the millennial kingdom, and Luke 12:37 certainly seems to speak of the same thing.
The Impact on Post-Tribulationism
Now see where this universal judgement leaves the post-tribulational system. As they believe, at the coming of Christ to execute judgement and establish his kingdom, all of the godly shall be raptured and glorified; and, as we have proved, all of the ungodly shall at the same time be destroyed. Thus, on the post-tribulational scheme, after the coming of Christ, there would be no one left on the earth to inherit the kingdom. It will thus be plainly seen that there can be no middle ground between amillennialism and pretribulationism. Post-tribulationism endeavors to stand between the two, but it is a hybrid system, which joins with pretribulationists and all premillennialists in interpreting those scriptures literally which speak of the reign of Christ, but then usually defects to the amillennial position, and spiritualizes many of the scriptures which speak of the reign of antichrist. But as soon as the truth set forth in this article is recognized, it becomes plainly apparent that they have no standing ground. They are forced to get on one side or the other—to abandon all expectation of a literal kingdom of Christ on the earth, or to embrace a consistently literal interpretation of prophecy, which will force them to the pretribulational system.
The Need for a Millennium
If there is to be a millennium at all—a “paradise restored,” when the creation itself is delivered from the bondage of corruption—when they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know him—when they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid—when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more—then there must be men alive in the body after the return of Christ, men who are neither raptured to heaven nor destroyed at the coming of Christ. There must be men who go through the final judgements on this world, and come out alive on the other side of them, precisely as Noah and his sons did in the judgement of the old world—which we know is a type of the judgement at the second coming of Christ.
Conclusion
In conclusion, post-tribulationists have but two alternatives: they may go back to amillennialism, or forward to pretribulationism. There is no standing ground between them.