Systematic Theology – Eschatology

The Covenant Consummation - The Last Judgment

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 24 of 32

Track: #24

Year:

Dictation Name: 24 The Covenant Consummation – The Last Judgment

[Rushdoony] Let us begin with prayer. Oh Lord our God we come to Thee in these troubled times, beseeching Thee to be mindful of us. Thou knowest, oh Lord, that as a people we have gone astray, that we have each sought after our own council and we have neglected Thy word and Thy law. Oh Lord our God be merciful unto us, recall us unto Thee and make us strong in Thy word by Thy Spirit that we may again be a free people, that we may again be a beacon light of grace unto all the world, that we may go forth from victory unto victory and overthrow the powers of darkness. Grant us this we beseech Thee, in Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is from II Peter the 2 chapter verses 4-9. II Peter 2:4-9 and our subject “The Covenant Consummation- the Last Judgment.”

“4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”

The covenant is basic to God’s relationship with man. We have studied previously the doctrine of the covenant and have seen that a covenant is a treaty of law so that no man can be in a relationship to God, a covenant relationship, unless it be a treaty of law. But since that relationship, that covenant, is between God and man the greater gives all the terms, and it is an act of grace whereby he enters into a relationship with man. So that God’s relationship to man, being a covenant relationship, is at one and the same time a relationship of grace and of law. Because of the covenant we have a community of life with God; it is also a community of law.

Law cannot save man, it is rather the life of the saved. The covenant promises to man blessings for faithfulness or obedience, and curses on disobedience. We have these spelled out in brief for us in Deuteronomy 28. These curses and blessings are operative throughout history, but in their totality, in the totality of curses and blessings, they are operative only twice in history, in the two great judgments that occur within history.

First is the crucifixion and resurrection. As Paul says in Galatians three verse three “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” The atonement is the great judgment of sin for the elect and for the condemnation of all the elect in Christ; so that we have to see the cross and the resurrection as a time of judgment; one of the two great judgments of history. Thus we must say that for all who are in Christ our great judgment has come and gone. Peter says of Christ that in His own self He bore our sins, in His own body, on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness (or justice) by whose stripes ye were healed. This we encounter in I Peter 3:24. In other words the cross is the death penalty for our sins, and we have been healed and resurrected to life, to the life of justice and of holiness.

The curse of the law is our abandonment by God and the reprobate find total abandonment with the last judgment. Christ as our vicarious substitute, our representative, in Matthew 27:46 “in the cry of dereliction experienced for us the abandonment by God”. Now if God’s elect must faith death, even though it is vicariously, and total separation from God (again vicariously) how can the reprobate escape? If it necessitated for our salvation such a judgment upon the very son of God, then no man is immune. Thus the first total judgment of history was the cross and the resurrection, the second the last judgment. Here we have the end of God’s patience, the end of history, and the full curse of the law. The covenant law then exacts the full measure of retribution. The curse in its fullness falls upon the reprobate, and blessings in their fullness come to the redeemed.

Our Lord says concerning the end of the world in Matthew 13:41-43 “The Son of man shall send forth His angles and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Again in Matthew 16 verse 27 our Lord says “for the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father, with His angles, and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” Our Lord says He is the judge, He shall come at the end, and He shall come to bring reward and punishment in its fullness to everyman. And the principle of reward is every man according to his works. We are saved by grace, but we are rewarded according to works. Thus to despise works is to despise God’s law and the very words of our Lord. Paul makes very clear that we walk in the works of faith in walking by works. He says in II Corinthians 5:7, 9-10, “For we walk by faith, not by sight. Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”

Now note the contrast here, Paul does not say we walk by faith, not by works, that’s a false antithesis. He says we walk by faith, not by sight, wherefore we labor, or we work, because we walk by faith, because we are saved by faith, therefore we have works, therefore we produce the fruits of righteousness, in order that we might be acceptable to Him. So that when we appear before the judgment seat of God we receive the things that are done and that our reward be a good one.

Now at the point of death everyone has a personal judgment, an immediate one. He goes either to heaven or to hell, this we’ll deal with on another occasion. Our Lord said to the thief on the cross “verily I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” This judgment at the point of death brings about a separation in terms of heaven or hell. The last judgment brings the resurrection of the body, the rewards, and the full judgment on all history, on all nations, on all the world, on all creation; on the fallen angles included. And this emphatically stated for us more than once in scripture because we are told, emphatically, that this is the case. For example we have already seen in II Peter the 2 chapter verse four and nine, that God did not spare the angles that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved, set apart, unto judgment. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptation, Peter goes on to say, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. Again in Jude 6 our Lord’s brother says “and the angles which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of that great day.”

This reservation to judgment is important. It speaks of it not as temporary, in other words they do not go to hell temporarily, but they are reserved there in hell for the fullness of the judgment at the end of creation. And we are told this is an example, an illustration, or a pattern of God’s dealings. That we are to understand history in terms of it, it is an example to the ungodly, but it is also one to us; to see how to understand history and all that happens therein. That our God has a pattern in what He does, and that it is dependable. What is this pattern? Well we are given a few illustrations of it. There are two illustrations of what He does in way of judgment upon the ungodly in history; one is the flood, and the other Sodom and Gomorrah. And so, Peter tells us, here we see something of what God’s judgment is like. That this is a pattern in history that culminates in the last judgment so that when God destroyed the world before the flood and wiped them out in all their pretention, their pride, and their unbelief, He let us know thereby that whenever a tower of Babel is erected by man, He will deal with it.

Whenever men in their pride dream that they can create a world order without Him, He will overwhelm it with a flood. That whenever men live in the paths of evil, of licentiousness, in flagrant contempt of God, as did Sodom and Gomorrah, He will destroy them. So that we can rest assured that history will see again and again, to the very last day, this kind of judgment. So that as we face the powers of humanistic statism today, the powers of Marxism, the powers of totalitarian democracies, because democracy is a totalitarian form of government, ungodly republicanism, fascism, you name it; all the political systems of the modern world are based on humanistic premises. God says “I shall deal with them, and my judgment does not abate between Sodom and Gomorrah and the flood, and the last judgment; it continues. Age after age it will overwhelm the ungodly.”

At the same time we’re given as an example, a pattern of God’s deliverance. In a world as evil as the world before the flood God still saved Noah and His family, eight persons. He was mindful of them and preserved them, and he delivered just Lot, and characterizes him as a just man, something a lot of preachers are unwilling to do. But God tells us what His evaluation in the totality of His life was, in the totality of Lot’s life.

Now, this tells us something therefore about the workings of God throughout history. That between the end of the Biblical cannon and the last judgment, God has not retired from history. God says that “even as I delivered Noah and Lot, I will deliver you.” And that “I have my deliverances and my judgments until the final curse upon the reprobate, and the final blessing throughout all eternity upon the Godly.” How total is that last judgment? Our Lord tells us. In Matthew 12:36 He declares “but I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” In other words, the last judgment does not deal in generalities, it is specific, there is an accounting of every idle word, and the reprobate are face to face with the totality of their lives, even as the redeemed are face to face with the totality of God’s grace in their salvation; a total life and a total judgment. All men are judged, in other words, by the covenant law; either in Christ or by Christ. To be judged in Christ is salvation, to be judged by Christ is condemnation. This is why it is important to recognize that there are two total judgments in the plan of God. One is the cross; there we are judged in Christ. But if we are not judged there in Christ, we are judged at the last judgment by Christ. Two total judgments.

The extent of that judgment Paul speaks of when he says in Romans 2:16 “of the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel, the truth about all will then be revealed.” Hence we must now avoid premature judgments. In I Corinthians 4:5 Paul says “therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the councils of the hearts, and then shall everyman have praise of God.” This is why it is so very, very wrong on the part of many clergymen to condemn Lot, or to condemn Abraham, or David, and other saints of old in terms of their limited vision. Because God gives us His verdict on them, and who are we to correct God? If God calls Lot just, or righteous, then we had better recognize that if we condemn Lot, there is something wrong with us. It troubles people sometimes, apparently, that Lot was saved. This is another way of saying that God troubles them.

Nothing is hidden from God, as Hebrews 4:13 declares: “neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and upon unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Thus the last judgment is a covenant fact. IT tells us that the covenant God keeps faith with His covenant people, that history is final brought to a triumph, that as we approach the end all the enemies of God are put down until finally, we are told, the last enemy, death itself, is destroyed. So that history moved to total victory, that in the first great judgment after the fall, the flood, virtually all of mankind was involved except for Noah and His household. But with each successive judgment the number of those who were judge in relationship to those who were saved begins to change, and the number of redeemed begins to grow as God purges out the ungodly. So that out of each judgment comes forth a greater and a greater multitude until finally all the enemies are put down, He shall put all things under His feet; and then the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. The last judgment then is a triumph and fact. It is the triumph of our Lord and of us in Him, over the kingdom of death and of sin by the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. It is the final destruction of sin and death, the eternal reign of justice in the person of our Lord. The doctrine of the last judgment is thus a doctrine for the comfort of the saints. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we beseech Thee to open our eyes that we may see indeed that Thou art at work in the world around us, that judgment is moving against the ungodly, that Thy judgment will be felt and known, and will shatter the evil ones in Moscow, in Peking, in London, Paris, Washington, Mexico City, in all the capitols of the world. Thy ways are true, and righteous and just altogether. And therefore our God give us grace to walk day by day in the assurance that in Jesus Christ we have been called to victory. That greater is He that is in us and with us, than He that is in the world. Arm us oh Lord by Thy word and Spirit, that we might ever be more than conquerors through Him that loved us, even Jesus Christ our Lord. In His name we pray, amen.

Are there any questions now concerning our lesson?

Yes?

[Audience member] Two questions really. We’re led to think that the most important history has occurred in the last fifty or a hundred years, has the pattern of judgment shifted slightly at the cross, or before the cross? You mentioned how there were more redeemed after each judgment, but has anything shifted since the cross?

And secondly, related to that sort of, is one of the consequences of Satan’s being bound that men would become more epistemologically self-conscious, that they would more aware of their sin, and that they would not be able to say “the devil made me do it”?

[Rushdoony] The cross is the binding of Satan. Therefore we have to say that the work of God has been proceeding at a greater pace since the cross. It has gone from one corner of the earth to all the earth, and therefore we have to say God’s pace of judgment, as well as a redemption, has been stepped up. We can therefore look ahead to the days ahead with the recognition that God’s judgment is going to shatter the ungodly in a tremendous way. We are seeing the forces of ungodliness come to a focus. They are bringing their doctrines, their humanistic doctrines, to a focus in the modern state, in modern economics, in modern art, in modern music, in modern sexuality; in one sphere after another epistemological self-consciousness is bringing man to focus his unbelief, his ungodliness, more and more openly.

If you go back in time you find that the difference, let us say, between popular music and Christian music was not as dramatic. But it becomes increasingly dramatic. This is not talking about of course the infiltration of this into the church in the form of rock-gospel hymns, which are an abomination. But there is a difference you see. In one area after another we are seeing this self-conscious development of the implications of Humanism. As a result the smashing of it will bring to a focus more clearly the kingdom of God.

Now one very conspicuous form of this is the Christian school movement. What’s happening? Why we’re separating ourselves from ungodly education. But what has happened through the centuries? Men did not see the difference. Julian the apostate saw the difference between a classical education and a Christian education. The Christians of His time didn’t see it. Now we’re being forced to see that so much of what we call the liberal arts education is a education in Humanism. So we are rethinking the foundations of education. The prolife movement is compelling us to re-think the foundations of medicine, because there’s a world of difference between a doctor who will perform an abortion and one who feels he cannot do this. So we’re going to see a great deal of re-thinking of the meaning of medicine; and we’re going to see, I trust, new schools of medicine established, or old ones captured to promote a kind of medicine that has a different premise. We’re going to see this in law schools, and I believe we’re beginning to see it very definitely.

In this respect the catholic law schools had a head start on most of us. Some of them have fallen by the wayside, others are beginning to purge themselves and clarify their premises. In one area after another we see a division setting in. Now if we did not have the crisis we’re having today, the world-wide crisis, that divination would not come about because if there’s one thing men like, it is to live at ease with anything, with good or evil. To live at ease with the worst as well as with the best, and to avoid a clear cut decision one way or another. But our crisis is compelling men increasingly to make a stand, so there is an advance in history towards the last judgment, and every judgment along the way clarifies the issues, and we can rejoice at this. We should, we don’t always, but we should rejoice.

Any other questions or comments?

Yes?

[Audience member] You mentioned Christ’s words to the thief on the cross in support of the idea that upon death if we are redeemed we immediately go to heaven. I’ve heard it argued many times that the comma in the statement is erroneous, and it should not be there and therefore if it were not it would change the meaning of the text entirely. Would you care to comment on that?

[Rushdoony] Yes the people who believe in soul sleep say that the word on the cross to the thief by our Lord was, “I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise”, as though today modified “say”. That’s grammatically impossible, it is an artificial rendering of the text, it is an attempt to try to get around a very obvious text.

Basically what they base their premise on, their doctrine of soul sleep, is that the Bible often speaks of death as a sleep, and they insist on taking that literally. But death and sleep are very different things. In other words the life beyond death as a sleep, scripture speaks of it. What the Bible has reference to when it speaks of sleep is the body. They speak of men as being alive with the Lord, our Lord makes it clear that Abraham and Isaac are alive today, that He is the God of Abraham and Isaac. As a result that is a very preposterous assumption. Now it has never been held by any group within the mainstream of Christianity, it had a history in the medieval period in some cults and groups, heretical ones, it flared up in certain of the Anabaptists at the time of the reformation, so that it appeared on both the Catholic and the Protestant sides, although neither one claimed any association with the groups that held that doctrine. Calvin attacked it strongly. In our day it has gained its greatest popularity because it has had the biggest following with the seventh Day Adventist. But it is not Biblically tenable.

Any other questions or comments?

Yes?

[Audience member] You mentioned that the gospel has now been preached to every nation and a lot of people believe that after the gospel is preached to every nation the Lord will come. But if you look at Colossians 1:23 it says “and His gospel which was preached to every creature, which is under heaven, where all I Paul am made a minister.” And at that time it was preached to every nation, during Paul’s time.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Well first of all there’s a difference between being preached to every nation and to every tribe, tongue, and person. There are portions of the world that have not been covered, although it’s penetrated into every nation. So there’s a great deal of work yet to be done before the gospel has been preached to all, and we are told, all are to be brought, all people’s, tribes, tongues, and nations, into the kingdom, and that’s a long, long ways from being realized.

Any other questions or comments?

Well if not, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Lord dismiss us now with Thy blessing. Make us ever joyful that Thou art on the throne and that we are Thy people, members of a kingdom that shall have no end, whose growth shall be continuous, and whose triumph inescapable. We thank Thee our Father for all Thy blessings, and we thank Thee that the best is yet for us to come. In Jesus name, amen.