CHAPTER XXIII.

THE RESURRECTION AND THE JUDGMENT.

- THE MES

SIANIC KINGDOM AND THE WORLD TO COME.

UPON no points were Jewish beliefs, as reflected in the Apocryphal and Apocalyptic books, more confused than upon the duration of the Messianic Kingdom, and the order of events that should precede and follow it; and especially upon the times of the resurrection and the judgment. It will be well to search out the grounds of this confusion to find, if possible, some data that may give definite and sure results.

As the starting-point of this inquiry, let us recur to the distinction made in the Introduction between the period of redemption and the ages that follow it. That redemption, from its very nature, must come to an end, is obvious. It is a work of God made necessary through man's sin, and has for its end his deliverance; and, when this end is attained as regards all who will be delivered, it ceases. There must come a time on the earth when all shall be obedient to God, and worship Him, and when "death, the last enemy," shall be destroyed; and a period of life and blessedness begin, to which there will be no end. That which distinguishes the redemptive age from that which follows it, lies in this, that during the former there is moral probation; men are still under trial whether they will repent of sin and obey God or not. But when it is past, proba

tion ceases: the moral state of all men, as good or evil, is fixed and unchangeable. When the work of redemption comes to its end, the final separation of the two classes is made; and they abide forever in the spiritual condition in which they are then found.

It is here, at the end of the redemptive period, that we must place the complete and final separation of the good and the evil. It is plain that it cannot have been before. So long as any are upon trial, God cannot pass sentence upon them determining their eternal destiny. The day of probation must be over before all can be judged. But the time of final judgment is also the time of final resurrection; since, as we are taught by the Lord, all who are in their graves must come forth to stand before Him in judgment. (John v. 28.)

We may now ask, to which of these periods - the redemptive or the post-redemptive-does the Messianic Kingdom belong? Most certainly to the former. As presented to us in the prophets, it is a continuation of the Theocracy under a higher form, but with the same end, the revelation of God to men, and their salvation. The Messiah is the King under Jehovah, and during this Kingdom probation continues. IIe sits in David's throne, that He may bring all blessings to His own people, and salvation to the nations. Great as is the prosperity and happiness of the elect people under His rule, they are, however, never spoken of by the prophets as set wholly free from the law of sin and death. Even their most glowing descriptions do not present redemption as completed, death as abolished, and the law of eternal life as ruling in the earth. Men still remain mortal, and are under trial. It is the purpose of God to "create new heavens and earth," and to swallow up death in victory; and the Messianic Kingdom is the stage immediately preparatory to this, and

prefiguring it; but, while the Kingdom continues, disobedience is still possible, and death. "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed." (Isa. lxv. 20.) And as individuals may sin and be punished, so we are told that if any left of the nations at that time do not come up year by year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, at Jerusalem, they shall be punished by the withholding of the rain. (Zech. xiv. 17.) The period of immortality and incorruption follows the Messianic age.

Regarded as redemptive, the Messianic Kingdom cannot be eternal; for this involves in it that the evils from which man is to be redeemed are eternal, and redemption is thus made a work without end; nor could it be followed by any resurrection or judgment. But, being redemptive, it comes to an end. How long it shall continue is determined by God, who sets the times and seasons, and who alone can give light as to the time or manner of its termination. And the question here arises, What light did He give by the Old-Testament prophets upon these points? Did He give them visions of the things to follow the Messianic Kingdom? Do they, in their predictions of the future, speak of the post-redemptive age, of that eternal order into which all things are to be brought when the work of the Messiah as Redeemer is completed? Without presuming to say what might have been the mind of the Spirit in the prophetic utterances, yet taking them in their obvious meaning, we may doubt whether it was the Divine will that His people should then look beyond the Messianic Kingdom. Upon this would He have their attention fastened. So far as the prophetic vision extends, it beholds a world still in process of redemption. It sees

in the future a new heaven and earth, as something to be ultimately realized, but only as begun, not completed. The heavenly and perfect and eternal order follows, in the Divine purpose, the Messianic Kingdom; but it is this Kingdom-the last stage of redemption — which is the great theme of prophecy, and which is ever held up to the people as the goal of their hope.

If we ask why this limitation of prophetic revelation, we may find it in the fact that here, as in all God's revelations respecting the future, He makes known only so much as is needful to show men their present duty, to fill them with hope, and prepare them to be workers together with Him. There is a limitation also in the spiritual capacity of man, which God regards in the revelations of His purpose. His children can know what perfected redemption is, only as they themselves advance toward it, and have part in it, one stage preparing them for the next. The heavenly and immortal order that follows redemption, and which is the consummation of all Divine manifestation, cannot be rightly conceived of till the last preceding stage — the Kingdom period is reached. When His children have been made partakers of the glory of the Kingdom, then will they be able to apprehend the nature of the higher and eternal glory that shall follow. We may therefore say that the prophets do not divide the future, as then lying before them, into the two great periods, redemptive and post-redemptive; their division is that of pre-Messianic and Messianic, the time before the Messianic Kingdom, and the Kingdom itself. The former continues till the Messiah appears as King to rule for Jehovah, and the end of the pre-Messianic time is defined by the setting up of the Messianic Kingdom; and to this Kingdom no end is assigned, for it was not God's will then to make known what should follow it.

As there is frequent mention of a resurrection and judgment in the Old-Testament prophets, we may here ask to what time in the order of the Divine actings they refer them? As has been said, the final resurrection and judgment must be at the end of redemption; and, as the Messianic Kingdom is redemptive, they cannot be till that kingdom comes to its end. The last separation of the good and the evil is not made till probation ceases. The resurrection and judgment of which the prophets speak, must therefore be placed at the beginning of the Kingdom; they are the initial acts of the Messiah in His administration of the theocratic rule, and must, from their relation to the Kingdom, be partial; universal resurrection and judgment cannot be till its close. But of such close the prophets make no mention. Their farthest vision beholds the children of Israel still enjoying the blessings of the Messianic Kingdom. (Isa. lx.; lxv. 18-23; Joel iii. 20; Amos ix. 14; Ps. lxxii; Ezek. xxxvii. 21-28.)

But it may be asked, if the prophets speak of the Kingdom of the Messiah as without end, how did some of the later Jews come to believe that it would be of limited, and as some said, of brief duration? As we have seen, the conception of the kingdom must be closely connected with the conception of the King. If the words of the prophets respecting Him were not understood, if He were not seen to be more than man, then His Kingdom must be essentially an earthly kingdom; and His administration, however righteous and full of blessing, come at some time to an end. It could not be the final and unchangeable period, but preparatory to it; beyond the Messianic Kingdom must be that of Jehovah. To Him as the eternal God belongs all rule, and His Kingdom must be without end. The real question, therefore, for the Jews was this: What is to