CHAPTER XII.

THE DOCTRINE OF RETRIBUTION AS SET FORTH IN THE REMAINING WRITINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

WE will consider first the Epistles of St. Paul.

Although these abound with the strongest assurances that glorious prospects await believers in the world beyond the grave, and although the Apostle lays down clearly the great principle that God will judge the world in righteousness, yet they afford little information additional to that which we have derived from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles respecting the nature of the retribution which awaits those who finally reject the Gospel, or respecting the condition of those after death who have lived and died without having had the opportunity of accepting or rejecting that message of good news to man, which our Lord again and again affirmed that it was the end and purpose of His mission to proclaim. Several of the Apostle's most important affirmations respecting the hopes and prospects of believers we have had occasion to consider in the preceding chapters. It will, therefore, be unnecessary to discuss them here. All that remains for me to do in this place will be to set before the reader his general positions respecting future retribution.

The Apostle's writings naturally divide themselves into four divisions, the composition of which was separated from one another by a considerable interval of time.

1st. The two Epistles to the Thessalonians, written about A.D. 53, 54.

2nd. The two to the Corinthians, and those to the Galatians and Romans, written A.D. 57, 58.

3rd. Those to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon, composed about A.D. 62.

4th. The three pastoral Epistles, of uncertain date, except the Second Epistle to Timothy, which was written shortly before the Apostle's death.

It will be observed that the first three groups are separated from each other by an interval of about four years. I propose to consider them in the order of their composition, because there is a considerable difference of view between the earlier and the later ones.

I. THE TWO EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.

The idea which pervades these two Epistles is the Parousia of Christ, commonly called His second advent. It is mentioned in no less than seven out of the eight chapters into which these Epistles are divided. I think that it is impossible to peruse them without arriving at the conclusion that both the Apostle and those to whom he wrote were persuaded that it was an event which would take place after no long interval of time. From the Second Epistle we learn that the members of this Church considered it to be an event then actually imminent; and that some of them were so firmly persuaded of its near approach that, in expectation of it, they neglected their ordinary business. One of the purposes for which the Apostle wrote his Second Epistle was to correct this idea. Thus he writes

"We beseech you, brethren, touching the coming (the Parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him, to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, that the day of Christ is now present" (evéoτηKev). (2 Thess. ii. 1, 2.) (ενέστηκεν).

X

Having thus warned his readers, he then reminds them that he had had much to say on this subject when he was among them, and especially that our Lord's Parousia would not come to pass until an event which he calls "the apostacy” had taken place, and a personage whom he designates "the man of sin, the son of perdition," had been revealed, "whom the Lord Jesus would slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming" (τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ). (2 Thess. ii. 8.)

The entire passage is evidently written in enigmatical language, under the apprehension that if he spoke in plain terms it might compromise the Church with the public authorities, for even during his residence at Thessalonica the very dangerous charge had been preferred against him of "setting up another king, one Jesus." But he evidently calculated that those who had heard his oral teaching on this subject would understand his meaning. The reader is doubtless aware that an interminable controversy has arisen as to what the Apostle meant by "the apostacy," and what was the idea which he intended to convey under the figure of "the man of sin, the son of perdition," who was to appear prior to the Parousia of Christ. Into this controversy I shall not enter. I shall only assume that although this passage proves that St. Paul did not think that our Lord's coming was close at hand, yet it seems impossible to read these Epistles and the other writings of the New Testament without arriving at the conclusion that the entire Apostolic Church considered it to be an event not very remote, and never thought that eighteen centuries, perhaps a far longer period, would elapse before this glorious manifestation of Christ would take place. In his later Epistles the Parousia of Christ occupies a far less prominent place, and in the one last written, while he is still looking forward to it as the consummation of his highest aspirations, he is expecting not it, but death.

In reading the New Testament it is necessary that the fact should be kept steadily in mind, that not only the Apostolic Church, but the Apostles themselves, were in error when they thought that the coming of Christ in visible glory was an event which would take place at no distant period of time, perhaps in the lifetime of some of the existing generation. Our Lord had affirmed that "it was not given to them to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath set within his own authority." They, therefore, continued ignorant that the glorious manifestation of the kingdom of God was an event which would not happen until some period of the far-distant future.

Such being the prominent position which the Parousia, or coming of Christ, occupies in these Epistles, it is hardly necessary to observe that future retribution is only referred to by the Apostle in direct connection with it. Of these references

the following are examples :

1. "For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as the rest that have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so also them that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, and are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in nowise precede those that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we that are alive and are left shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess. iv. 13-18.)

From this passage we learn that the Thessalonian Christians were greatly disturbed respecting the lot of those among them who died prior to our Lord's manifestation in glory.

The Apostle therefore assures them that those who had fallen asleep prior to this event would be in no worse position than those who were alive to witness it, and that he had Divine authority for saying that departed saints will be raised from the dead before those who are living at the time of his appearing would be summoned to meet him. It should be observed that the resurrection of which the Apostle here speaks is exclusively a resurrection of believers.

2. In the following verses the Apostle speaks of the fate of those sinners who are alive at our Lord's coming:

"But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that aught be written unto you. For your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh, as a thief in the night. For when they are saying, Peace, and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail on a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape." (1 Thess. v. 1-3.)

The judgment with which these sinners are here threatened is a sudden destruction (aipvicios öλelpos.) It is difficult to conceive that the word oλepos, the Greek equivalent of our English word destruction, when united with the word sudden, could have been understood by the Thessalonian Greek-speaking Christians as meaning a continuous existence in never-ending misery.

3. Similar is the affirmation made in the following passage :

"If so be that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction (aiviov öλelpov) ὄλεθρον) from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his might,