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| Hebrews 9:27 KJT "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment..." |
Sing
F Lau
17
Nov 2022
#judgment_after_death
(temporal state)
#judgment_after_resurrection
(eternal state)
Hebrews
9:27 KJT
"And
as it is appointed unto men once to die,
but
after this the judgment..."
I
was musing on this well-known passage, and some questions came to mind.
-
Is the judgment spoken of a judgment shortly after each man's death or the
general and final judgment at the distant end of the gospel age?
-
Is there a judgment at the end of a man's life on earth?
-
Is the death spoken of as the physical death of individual men, or is it the
death of man corporately considered, i.e. as, in Adam, all died?
I
checked John Gill's commentary on the second half of verse 27; it reads thus:
"but
after this the judgment" - the last and general judgment, which will reach
to all men, quick and dead, righteous and wicked, and in which Christ will be
Judge. There is a particular judgment which is immediately after death; by
virtue of which, the souls of men are condemned to their proper state of
happiness or woe; and there is an universal judgment, which will be after the
resurrection of the dead, and is called eternal judgment, and to come; this is
appointed by God, though the time when is unknown to men; yet nothing is more
certain, and it will be a righteous one."
Matthew
Henry said these:
(2.)
It is appointed to men that after death they shall come to judgment, to a
particular judgment immediately after death; for the soul returns to God as to
its judge, to be determined to its eternal state; and men shall be brought to
the general judgment, at the end of the world. This is the unalterable decree
of God concerning men—they must die, and they must be judged. It is appointed
for them, and it is to be believed and seriously considered by them.
(note: I'm quoting them, not expressing agreement or otherwise.)
John
Gill speaks of two distinct judgments, a particular judgment, and a universal
judgment.
-
"There is a particular judgment which is immediately after death; by
virtue of which, the souls of men are condemned to their proper state of
happiness or woe."
-
"And there is an universal judgment, which will be after the resurrection
of the dead, and is called eternal judgment, and to come."
Likewise, Matthew Henry speaks of a particular judgment immediately after death, and the general judgment, at the end of the world.
"There
is a particular judgment which is immediately after death; by virtue of which,
the souls of men are condemned to their proper state of happiness or woe."
Gill
Are the Lord's words to His own disciples speaking of this particular judgment - "enter into life" (state of happiness) or "enter into hell" (state of woe) after death?
Mark
9 - KJT
43
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into
life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched:
44
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
45
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt
into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched:
46
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
47
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into
the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell
fire:
48
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Matthew
10 KJV
1¶And
when he had called unto him his twelve disciples...
28
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but
rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Gill said, "And there is an universal judgment, which will be after the resurrection of the dead, and is called eternal judgment, and to come."
Are these words in Rev 20 descriptive of the universal and eternal judgment which is to come?
Revelation
20 - KJT
11
¶And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the
earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were
opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead
were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to
their works...
15
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake
of fire.
Please
note something most important for the redeemed people of God:
In
their temporal judgment at the end of their lives, their works are considered;
In their eternal judgment,
it's based solely on whether their names are written in the Lamb's Book of
Life, i.e. freely redeemed by Christ.
The latter is affirmed by the very next verse:
Hebrews
9 KJT
28
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look
for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
All those for whom Christ offered Himself to bear their sins, the eternal judgement at Christ's second coming is WITHOUT SIN (i.e. with no regard to sin) but UNTO ETERNAL SALVATION. Christ's redeeming work immutably secured eternal salvation from the eternal lake of fire; many conveniently think Christ immutably saved them from the temporal intermediate hell. If that is so, what do we make of the solemn warnings of Christ to His disciples in Mark 9:43-48 and other similar passages?
2
Timothy 2:7 KJT
Consider
what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
