![]() These passages clearly refer to the judgment at the end of the world. We also read of God's judgment seat in a passage where several manuscripts have"Christ's judgment seat" ( Rom 14:10 ). Most of the examples of the use of the term in the New Testament refer to human tribunals, but we have one explicit reference to the judgment seat of Christ ( 2 Col 5:10 there are also references to Christ's activity in final judgment as 1 Col 4:5 1 Thess 2:19 ). It is used of a raised platform on which the judge sat during judicial proceedings (and from which he pronounced his verdict) or of the seat itself. Such as “No vision of the drowsy night, No airy current half so light,”īecause it is a spirit, and by its very slightness incapable of being perceived, but only by us who are corporeal but capable of being perceived by God, since it belongs to Him to be able to do all things.The word we translate "judgment seat" ( bema ) basically means "step" from which it comes to be used as a unit of measure ( Acts 7:5 ). So penal sufferings they endure For ancient crime, to make them pure.”ġ411 įor the soul, when separated from the body, is, as the same poet says, 1412 “Nay, when at last the life has fled, And left the body cold and dead, E’en then there passes not away The painful heritage of clay: Full many a long contracted stain Perforce must linger deep in grain. Which sentiment is thus expressed by the poet: 1410 This question or argument is thus met by the Stoics: that the souls of men continue to exist, and are not annihilated 1409īy the intervention of death: that the souls, moreover, of those who have been just, being pure, and incapable of suffering, and happy, return to the heavenly abodes from which they had their origin, or are borne to some happy plains, where they may enjoy wonderful pleasures but that the wicked, since they have defiled themselves with evil passions, have a kind of middle nature, between that of an immortal and a mortal, and have something of weakness, from the contagion of the flesh and being enslaved to its desires and lusts, they contract an indelible stain and earthly blot and when this has become entirely inherent through length of time, souls are given over to its nature, so that, though they cannot altogether be extinguished, inasmuch as they are from God, nevertheless they become liable to torment through the taint of the body, which being burnt in by means of sins, produces a feeling of pain. ![]() If it is not liable to death, not even to pain, it follows that it is not capable of suffering. Here, perhaps, some one will say, If the soul is immortal, how is it represented as capable of suffering, and sensible of punishment? For if it shall be punished on account of its deserts, it is plain that it will be sensible of pain, and even of death. Īnd weighty, they may be given to a life of blessedness but if the evil exceed, they may be condemned to punishment. Therefore they who have known God shall be judged, and their deeds, that is, their evil works, shall be compared and weighed against their good ones: so that if those which are good and just are more 1408ġ408 Good and bad actions will not be compared by reference to number: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”-Jas. 5: “The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment.” They shall indeed arise, but it will be to “the resurrection of damnation.” See Dan. For they who have not known God, since sentence cannot be passed upon them for their acquittal, are already judged and condemned, since the Holy Scriptures testify that the wicked shall not arise to judgment. Not all men, however, shall then be judged by God, but those only who have been exercised in the religion of God. Then in another:- “And then the gaping earth shall show a Tartarean chaos and all kings shall come to the judgment-seat of God.”Īnd in another place in the same:- “Rolling along the heavens, I will open the caverns of the earth and then I will raise the dead, loosing fate and the sting of death and afterwards I will call them into judgment, judging the life of pious and impious men.” And respecting this judgment and reign, it is thus found in the Erythræan Sibyl:- “When this shall receive its fated accomplishment, and the judgment of the immortal God shall now come to mortals, the great judgment shall come upon men, and the beginning.” XX.-Of the Judgment of Christ, of Christians, and of the Soul.Īfter these things the lower regions shall be opened, and the dead shall rise again, on whom the same King and God shall pass judgment, to whom the supreme Father shall give the great power both of judging and of reigning. XX.-Of the judgment of Christ, of Christians, and of the soulĬhap. Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries.Ĭhap. XX.-Of the judgment of Christ, of Christians, and of the soul - ANF07.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |