Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church

5101 Beechtree

Hudsonville, Michigan 49426
Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org

Vol. 8, No. 9

Contents:
One Final Judgment
Christ, the Propitiation for the World (1)
When are the Promises to be Fulfilled?

One Final Judgment

In its teaching concerning the last things, Scripture has more to say about the judgment day than about anything else. Let us look briefly at that testimony.

First, Scripture teaches that there will be but one judgment. The judgments of the sheep and the goats (Matt. 25:31-46); of the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15) and other judgments mentioned in Scripture, are not different judgments taking places at different times in history, but all one and the same final public judgment.

There is, of course, a certain judgment that takes places through history in God's works of providence and salvation and at death, but we are speaking here of the final, public judgment of every creature, men, angels and devils. There is only one such judgment, not many, as some teach (the Schofield Bible teaches seven).

It is not our purpose in these articles to refute in detail the contentions of the dispensationalists and premillennialists concerning multiple judgments. We give just one example to show the kind of flimsy argument that is used to support such teaching.

It is suggested that the judgment of Matthew 25:31-46 is a judgment which precedes the end of the world by 1000 years or so, and is a judgment of the then living nations in relation to Israel. These nations, so it is said, are judged only with respect to their treatment of Israel during the times preceding this judgment.

Not only does Scripture not speak of living nations in Matthew 25, but rather of all nations (vs. 32), but it clearly shows that this judgment is individual and according to works, just as the judgment of Revelation 20. Indeed, verse 46 speaks of righteous and the unrighteous, of everlasting punishment and of life eternal, just as do the other passages that speak of the final judgment (Jn. 5:26-29 - notice the one "hour" and the one general resurrection that take place along with the one judgment).

Not only that, but this judgment follows the coming of the Son of man in His glory, a coming which is also described in chapter 24:30-31 and which takes place at the sound of a trumpet, which can only be the trumpet mentioned in I Corinthians 15:51-53, Revelation 11:15-18, and I Thessalonians 4:14-17. It is a coming according to chapter 24:29-30 that is announced by the darkening of the sun and moon, is with clouds, and visible to all eyes, all of which describe in Scripture His final appearance at the end of all ages (Rev. 6:12-17; II Pet. 3:10-17; Rev. 1:7).

Clearest proof, however, for one final judgment is found in Scripture's emphasis on the fact that all shall be judged when Christ returns, not some now and some later (I Jn. 5:28), that there is but a single judgment, not judgments (Matt. 5:21-22; 12:41-42), and on the fact that the coming judgment is described as a "day" (Acts 17:31; II Pet. 3:7).

Is it important to believe this? We believe it is, not only because it is bound up with one's view of Israel and of the resurrection and of the coming of Christ, but because it is for that judgment and that alone that we must prepare ourselves according to the Word of God in II Peter 3:10-11.

Rev. Ronald Hanko

Christ, the Propitiation for the World (1)

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (I John 2:2).

This is a favorite passage of the universalists, who teach that Christ died for all men. It is no wonder that this passage comes up time and time again in the debate over the extent of the atonement of our Lord.

The debate is very old. It began at thee time of Augustine who lived in the latter part of the 4th and early part of the 5th centuries. Augustine insisted on a particular redemption; i.e., that Christ died only for the elect. The Roman Catholic church repudiated this doctrine of Augustine (even though Rome has canonized him and claims him as one of the holy fathers). They insisted on a universal atonement to protect their precious doctrine of human merit.

For this doctrine a monk of the 8th century rotted in prison, put there by the Roman Catholic authorities. The monk's name was Gotteschalk, and he was martyred for defending the doctrines of Augustine, including particular redemption.

This was one of the great issues at the time of the Reformation. The fact of the matter is, many would-be experts on the Reformation to the contrary notwithstanding, that all the reformers, without one exception, believed in particular redemption.

This was the great battle during the Arminian controversy in the Netherlands. The Arminians denied this truth and spoke of a Christus pro omnibus, a Christ for all. They made salvation dependent on the will of man, you see. They made salvation available to all by a universal atonement, but made the actual realization of salvation dependent on the will of man. The Canons of Dordt were written to set forth the truth over against these God-denying doctrines.

This has been the great battle of the ages, for it is a battle that rages between those who hold to the heresy that salvation is, in some measure, dependent on the will of man, and those who hold to the truth that salvation is by grace alone, a grace that is sovereign and particular.

Those who would maintain that salvation is dependent upon man, teach many other man-glorifying doctrines, equally heretical. They teach that man is not totally depraved, that God's election is based on foreseen faith, that grace is given to all men (common grace), that grace is resistible, that God desires to save all men, that a man can be a child of God for a time, but lose his salvation through his own disobedience, and that Christ died for all men to make salvation dependent upon man's choice. This is the heresy of human merit, human works, human glory.

Those who maintain that salvation is by grace alone, maintain all the other truths of grace. They teach that God sovereignly and eternally chose His people in Christ without any regard to works. They teach a sovereign reprobation, according to which God determines that He will manifest His righteous justice in the eternal punishment of the wicked in the way of their sin. They teach that man is totally incapable of doing any good, not even able to will the good. They teach that Christ died only for His elect, that grace is given only to the elect; and is absolutely irresistible; that once a child of God, always a child of God - even when the elect fall into grievous sin, for God will bring them to repentance. They teach that God desires the salvation of the elect only, and that His purpose is always accomplished.

To return to I John 2:2, those who teach that Christ died for all men actually destroy the cross of Christ and make His perfect sacrifice of no effect. They teach that, although Christ died for all, all are not saved. Hence, the cross cannot, of itself, save. The cross of Christ and His atoning work are ineffectual. How dreadful! If that human philosophy be true, then no one is saved. It has been rightly said that a "Christ for all" is a "Christ for none." But then we are yet in our sins.

It has been argued that, although in one sense Christ died only for the elect, in other senses Christ died for all men. The Marrow Men, for example, said that Christ died for the elect, but is dead for all men. Whatever that distinction may mean, the fact is that the Marrow Men taught that in some sense Christ's atoning sacrifice was for all men. In this way the Marrow Men made room for the well-meant offer of the gospel and its pernicious error that God wills that all men be saved.

Others have argued that Christ died for all men in the sense that His atonement is sufficient for all men. It is efficient only for the elect, but sufficient for all. Those who hold to this view even appeal to the Canons of Dordt as if they taught the same. The article appealed to is II,3. It reads: "The death of the Son of God is the only and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin; and is of infinite worth and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world."

Some, who want to cling to a last strand of universal atonement have even expanded this statement of Dordt to mean that Christ's atonement is sufficient for all men; that it is intended for all men; and that it is available to all men. It is efficient only for the elect. This is an Amyrauldianism which, though born in France in the school of Saumur, had devastating influences in England and the British Isles. It was a view even represented at Westminster, although it did not prevail there.

But our space has been filled for this issue, and we will hold further discussion to the next issue.

Prof. Herman Hanko

When Are the Promises To Be Fulfilled?

There remains something to be said in answer to the question posed in the last issue. The question concerned the fulfillment of the OT promises. In the last issue we spoke of how prophecy is to be interpreted. Let us apply that to the specific promises mentioned by our correspondent: the "throne" and "land" promises.

First, then, the promise that Jesus would receive the throne of David. In its original form, that promise was that David's seed would sit on his throne forever (II Sam. 7:16). That promise had a first, typical, earthly, OT fulfillment in Solomon and those who followed him on the throne of the Kingdom of Judah. God fulfilled it by preserving the line and throne of David through many perils - an on-going fulfillment of the promise.

That fulfillment, however, was only typical and incomplete. As became evident in Judah's history, David's descendants did not retain the throne, nor preserve the glory of it. By the time Christ came, the line of David had dwindled to one woman (Luke 1:32-34), so that there was no man left to sit on David's throne, which throne had been usurped by others. Herod sat in Caesar's name where once David and his sons had ruled.

As our correspondent rightly suggests, therefore, Christ was the principle fulfillment of the promise concerning David's throne, but He receives not an earthly typical throne, but the heavenly and everlasting throne of which that earthly throne was but a shadow (Ps. 24:7-10; Acts 2:30; Heb. 1:8).

Nevertheless, even the fulfillment of that promise in Christ has various stages and an on-going fulfillment. That the throne belonged to Christ already at birth as is evident from the worship of the Wise men (Matt. 2:2, 11). Nor do we mean only that He would be a great King, but already then He was directing and controlling the events of history and acting as a great King though He lay (humanly speaking) a helpless baby in Bethlehem.

That He had the throne was evident throughout His ministry in all His acts of power and in every display of His majesty. He acted as King on the mountain with Satan (Matt. 4:8-10), in all His miracles, and in His triumph over His enemies in the garden (Jn. 18:4-9). He, not they, controlled the course of events.

That promise had a fulfillment at the cross when they (in mockery, no doubt) hung the words of truth over His head, "This is the King of the Jews." There He, the King of kings, triumphed gloriously over all enemies. It had a further fulfillment in His ascension and exaltation to God's right hand (Acts 2:30), and will not be completely fulfilled until finally He sits in that throne judging all creatures and delivering up the Kingdom to His Father.

All this is true also of the land promise. There was an earthly and typical fulfillment of that promise to Abraham's descendants (a complete fulfillment, we might note, so that there is nothing left to be fulfilled of that promise as far as the earthly land is concerned - I Kings 8:56). God continued to fulfill that promise typically when He preserved the nation in the land and after the captivity brought them back to it.

Nevertheless, as Abraham himself saw (Acts 7:5; Heb. 11:8-16), the earthly land was not the real or final fulfillment of the promise. That promise ultimately concerned the new heavens and earth and Abraham's spiritual descendents, and will not be fulfilled completely until the elect take possession of the new heavens and earth when Christ returns. There is, then, an on-going and growing fulfillment of all God's promises! Rev. Ronald Hanko