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Pastor Charles Taze Russell
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The Judgment Day Of The Nations

"The times of this Ignorance God winked at: but now God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world In righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained . " Acts 17:30, 31

 

The Judgment Day, once dreaded by all classes, has come to have a new meaning when studied in the light of the Bible alone-our confusing creeds of the Dark Ages being set aside. During the long period of time from the Deluge to the First Advent of our Redeemer, the world of mankind lay in ignorance, weakness and vice; but, as our text declares, God took no notice of it as a whole. He gave His entire attention to the little nation of Israel, with whom he made a special Law Covenant. Israel entered upon a great schooling period; first, in a condition of peonage in Egypt; then, under the command of Moses, passing from Egypt to Canaan, with a wandering of forty years in the wilderness; and later, under judges, kings, etc., in the Promised Land.

 

God did not overlook a sin amongst the Israelites, whom He had adopted as His peculiar people under the Law Covenant mediated by Moses. We read that "every disobedience received a just recompense of reward." (Hebrews 2:2) Stripes, punishments, captivities, under Divine supervision and predicted by the Prophets, were the portion of Israel. Obedience on their part brought blessing, but disobedience and idolatry brought chastisements-God winked at nothing respecting His chosen people, the nation of Israel.

 

At first glance this is perplexing. Those not understanding the Divine Plan would be inclined to expect the favored nation to be excused more than others, that Israel would be the people whose imperfections would be winked at. But not so; Israel was chosen for a purpose, and in order to prepare them for their mission, the Lord chastened and scourged them for their sins. Thus He educated them and assisted them out of degradation more than others. As a result, when our Lord came into the world to be man's Redeemer, Israel, under the chastising, scourging and instructing experiences of many centuries, was by far the most advanced nation in the world along religious lines.

 

Thus it was that when the Redeemer presented Himself, a remnant of the Jews were "Israelites indeed, " and ready to receive Him-five hundred during His earthly ministry and several thousand more at the following Pentecostal season. It is but reasonable to suppose that no other nation in the world would have furnished any such numbers ready of heart for Messiah and fully consecrated to Him. Note, for instance, that St. Paul's preaching to the Athenians on Mars Hill apparently touched not even one heart or head.

 

THE DIVINE ATTITUDE DURING THE CHRISTIAN AGE

 

As God "winked" at the sins of the world aside from His covenanted nation, Israel, so He has continued to wink at, to ignore the sins of the heathen world since. St. Paul says, "He now commandeth all men everywhere to repent," but only those who hear the command have a responsibility respecting it. The heathen masses have never heard the Divine Message offering life everlasting through Christ. God's attitude toward them would therefore properly be the same as it was toward the Gentiles during the Jewish Age. The responsibility for right-doing in this Gospel Age rests with those upon whom the light of Truth has shined. In an especial sense the illuminated ones, the enlightened ones, are the Church alone. Only God's consecrated people receive the begetting of the Holy Spirit, its anointing, the opening of their eyes of understanding. And with these the measure of their enlightenment varies; and those who see little have less responsibility than those who see much. Thus seen' God's dealings during this Christian Age are merely with the Church, the saints of God, the consecrated, and not with the heathen.

 

But a large class of Gentiles, styling themselves Christendom, have been so much in contact with the light of Divine Truth as to have a weighty responsibility upon them. It is upon this class that heavy judgments are about to fall in the close of this Age. They have heard the Message of God's mercy toward mankind through Christ, and of their privilege of repenting and coming into Covenant relationship with God. They have hypocritically pretended to make a covenant with the Lord, pretended to be His people, while "their hearts were far from Him." Their punishment will be greater because of their hypocrisy-because they have foolishly thought that they could deceive the Almighty. They will learn that He will not be mocked. Nevertheless, the rod of chastisement upon them will be with a view to their recovery and not for their destruction-much less their eternal torture. Only the incorrigible at any time are to die the Second Death.

 

THE WORLD'S JUDGMENT DAY

 

The Apostle declared that "God has appointed a Day (a future Epoch) in which He will judge the world." There was no intimation by the Apostle that the world's Judgment Day had begun. Everything in his language indicated that it would be future. Elsewhere we are told that when the world will be on judgment, on trial, for life or death everlasting, the Church glorified will be the judges. (Matthew 19:28; 1 Cor. 6:2) This means that when the Church, now on trial, shall have been completed, shall have passed through the resurrection change into glory and become associated with the Redeemer in His Kingdom-then the world will have its Judgment Day, or trial. That period, also styled "the Day of Christ," is Scripturally declared to be a thousand years long.

 

During this time Messiah and His Church will judge the world-giving all a test, to demonstrate their worthiness or unworthiness of everlasting life.

 

The opportunity then to be given the world will be a grand one. The Scriptures declare that the Lord's judgment will be a righteous one, in which the poor world, born in sin and depravity as children of Adam, will have fullest opportunity of getting rid of their ignorance and superstition, and their weaknesses, mental, moral and physical. Every preparation is beingmade for that great judgment of the world. The Scriptures declare that during that time "The knowledge of God's glory will fill the whole earth." No longer will the Divine character be aspersed with slanderous teachings, making Him out viler than any of His creatures. Not only will all possible good influences surround humanity during their thousand year Day of Judgment, but every evil influence will be bound, restrained; "Satan shall be bound for a thousand years that he may deceive the people no more until the thousand years be finished."

 

How different this Biblical and reasonable view of the great Judgment Day from the one given us in childhood from the creeds of the Dark Ages! That view taught us that the Judgment Day would be twenty-four hours, and that then all the dead would come from Heaven and Hell and Purgatory, to see if mistakes had been made, and since no mistakes could be made by God, they would all go back to the same condition. How foolish we were that such a proposition should every have appealed to us as reasonable or Godlike! Why did we not think to inquire what the Bible had to say respecting the Judgment Day? Why did we not sooner learn the beauties of the Divine arrangement? The answer is that we were thoroughly blinded by the false teachings commingled with the truths we learned in childhood. But God s time for helping us out of the darkness into the clearer light, has come within the last forty years, even as for good reasons He has kept hidden until this same time the wonderful knowledge of our day on other linesknowledge which is proving a blessing to the full degree only to those whose hearts are right with God; but to others is proving a curse and hastening the whole world toward the chasm of Anarchy.

 

THE REDEEMER TO BE THE JUDGE

 

St. Paul declares that this righteous judgment of the world that will come in the Day of Christ-the Millennial Day-will be under the supervision of Christ-Messiah. The same Apostle elsewhere tells us that The Christ is made up of many members-the saintly Church gathered out of all denominations, with Jesus as their Head. These figuratively constitute the one New Man, made up from both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus is the Second Adam. During the thousand years of His Reign He will deal with all the human family, the children of the first Adam, whom He redeemed by the sacrifice of Himself. He will grant them all a full opportunity to be raised up out of sin and death to perfection, to the likeness of God in which the first Adam was created. To all such he will be the Life-Giver, the Savior, the Deliverer from the power of sin and death. The basis of all this judgment of the world was laid at Calvary. The more than eighteen centuries since have been wed in judging, trying, testing, a faithful handful, a "little flock," from both Jews and Gentiles, responsive to the Lord's Message of mercy, and willing, yea, anxious, to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

 

This judgment opportunity will not be merely for those living at the time the Church will be glorified at the Lord's Second Advent and the establishment of His Kingdom. These are to have the first blessing of knowledge and opportunity under the Kingdom, that a start may be made in the way of righteousness. These, enlightened and convinced respecting the undesirability of sin, the desirability of righteousness and the glorious provision of Messiah's Kingdom, will make a good start before the sleeping millions of the human family will begin to be awakened in harmony with the promise, "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust;" in harmony also with the Master's words, "All that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth." Acts 24:15; John 5:28, 29

 

We thank God for the wideness of His mercy, "like the wideness of the sea"-that the Divine Plan is no respecter of persons, that every member of the race, condemned through Father Adam's disobedience, redeemed from that condemnation by the death of Jesus, shall have a full opportunity of coming to a knowledge of the facts and of using that knowledge for his own recovery from sin, sickness, sorrow, pain and death-the ultimate attainment of human perfection and everlasting life.

 

The Divine Law will be the same in the Future as now. God never changes, and His Law will never change. But the way to everlasting life will be easier than now. No longer will it be a narrow or difficult way; no longer will it call for the sacrifice of every earthly right and interest in order to attain eternal life. No longer will the Adversary place darkness before the minds of men as light, and cause light to appear to be darkness; for his power will be restrained. No longer will it be true that "all who live godly shall suffer persecution." But on the contrary, those living godly will receive more and more of God's blessing; and instead of faithfulness leading to death, it will lead upward and onward to human perfection and everlasting life under the blessed conditions of the Kingdom which God has prepared for the whole world.

 

WHY THE NARROW WAY OF THE CHURCH?

 

The way for the Church in the present time is narrow, difficult, because evil is dominant now. The Lord makes use of this opportunity of evil's dominance to issue His Call for soldiers of the Cross in order that the conflict between the evil and the good may serve to prove and to test the faithfulness and loyalty of those whom He has called to so high a station. And since the trials are more difficult, it does not surprise us that the reward is greater. The earthly reward for the world, as we have seen, will be everlasting life as human beings, in Paradise restored, on God's footstool made glorious. But the reward of the Church, if faithful, will be a change of nature from human to Divine, and a share with the Redeemer, Messiah, in His glory, honor and immortality.

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