Below
is Prof. Hanko’s next installment of his explanation of the signs of
the times in Matthew 24. In a cover note, he said the following
regarding these articles:
“Attached
is another article on “Signs of the Times.” In fact, it is the last
article that deals with the signs themselves. The rest of chapter 24 and
the whole of chapter 25 in Matthew’s gospel are spoken by the Lord to
admonish us to live constantly in the expectation of His coming again.
The theme of all the rest is ‘Watch and Pray.’ I am planning now to
spend a few articles on all that material.”
I suggested the possibility that Jesus makes a distinction in the text between the sign of His coming and His actual coming. However that may be, the sign of Christ’s coming triggers a series of events of which the text itself does not speak. They are: the resurrection of the bodies of both the wicked and the righteous. The wicked will rise with bodies adapted to live forever in hell; the righteous will rise with glorified bodies adapted to live forever in heaven.
Another event will be the final judgment at which our Lord, sitting on a great white throne, shall pass judgment on every single person that ever lived: from babies that never came to birth to aged men who lived over 900 years. At the judgment Christ will separate the sheep from the goats.
Another event will be the destruction of this old universe and
everything in it, and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth.
Heaven and earth will be united into one glorious creation in which all
evidences of sin and the curse will be taken away and the glory of God
shall fill the whole creation from one end to the other.
How all these events will take place and in what order we do not know. There are two reasons why we cannot tell exactly how all these things will take place. The first is that with the darkening of the sun and moon, the falling of the stars and the shaking of the powers of heaven, time as we know it now, governed by the movement of heavenly bodies, will be no more.
The second reason is that all the events that take place are wonders that God performs through Jesus Christ. They are all miracles. And as no one could explain and understand the miracles that the prophets, apostles and Christ Himself performed, so this great wonder of the ages, the final redemption of the people of God, is beyond our comprehension.
I am going to mention these events of which Scripture speaks, and say a word or two about each one.
First of all, even the appearance of Christ in the heavens is something
we do not understand. In an earlier article, I called attention to this
fact. Every eye shall see Him, Scripture says. Everyone living shall
see Him in the sky coming in the clouds. How it is possible for the
people in Singapore to see Him at the same time that the people on the
other side of the globe, here in the States, to see Him as well, we
cannot tell.
Closely connected with that is the fact that the text tells us that “then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn” (Matt. 24:30). That is, every man will know immediately that this appearance of the sign of the Son of man is the second coming of Christ and that His coming means they shall have to stand before His judgment seat and give an account to Him of all they did. They boasted of their sins when they did them and sneered at those who warned them of their sins. But nothing like that will be possible when they stand before Christ.
At this time the resurrection from the dead will take place. We need not discuss this resurrection in detail, for sermons are regularly preached on it. But a few things are worth noticing.
First the resurrection is a great miracle. Our bodies are buried and turn to dust. As dust they are absorbed into grass and other plants and eventually eaten by humans. Some who are buried at sea are eaten by sharks. Saints who have been burned in fires or killed by being burned at the stake and whose bodies become smoke are blown away. Yet, God takes care of every speck of every body, brings it all together again at the resurrection and raises each body.
The body that is buried is also raised. It is not a newly created body
that comes from the grave, but it is the body with which we went to the
grave. But bodies are raised in such a way that they are changed: the
bodies of the righteous are changed to be like the glorious body of
Christ to Whom they belong (I Cor. 15:21-22, Phil. 3:21). And the bodies
of the wicked are changed to spend eternity in hell.
Paul speaks of the fact that the “dead in Christ” shall rise first, and
then those who are still living when Christ returns shall be raised (I
Thess. 4:16-17). Further, when Christ comes to destroy the wicked and
this creation He comes with His saints who are already raised (Rev.
19:11-21, especially verse 14).
Apparently, all men shall stand before Christ in their resurrection bodies. In their bodies they shall be judged; and the kind of body they have in the resurrection is already an expression of judgment.
The chief purpose of the judgment shall be the complete vindication of God and His Christ. What a day that will be! The righteous, hated and despised, mocked and persecuted, will be shown before all men to be God’s armies, Christ’s own body and church and loved of God in His sovereign grace. It will be shown that the righteous are righteous in Christ and represented His cause in the world.
At the same time, Christ will demonstrate publicly that the wicked go to hell for their sins, and that the awful judgment of hell is righteous judgment, for God is a holy God Who hates sin. Imagine if you can the confrontation at Christ’s judgment seat of Christ and Antichrist. The latter, the most powerful man that ever lived, ruling the whole world, who claimed that he was Christ, but killed Christ’s people. Imagine how while on earth at the height of his power, he was ruler of billions, mighty and strong, irresistible in his power, able to perform miracles, loud and boasting. And now he stands before Christ himself! See how he shrinks in terror, moans and whines in his misery, looks like a broken and useless chunk of flesh, and waits for the moment when he and Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire.
And then comes those wonderful words spoken to each righteous one: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy Lord.”
Some claim that our sins will not be revealed in the judgment day; but I am sure they will be. But we need not fear because all our sins will be shown to be covered with the blood of Christ and completely forgiven. In this way too, Christ will show, before all the world, that God’s grace and mercy and love shown in Christ are the sole explanation for the salvation of God’s people, so that God may receive all the glory forever.
And then shall this old world be destroyed and burned with fire, and the new heavens and earth formed in which we shall live forever with Christ. God shall be all in all. His glory shall be fully revealed in Christ, our Lord, our King, our Redeemer. We shall then be fully his body and God’s glory, revealed in Christ shall shine through us as well: we shall be arrayed in glory!
Beneath us, though sharing in our glory, will be the elect angels, ministering servants to the elect (Heb. 1:14). They are like our nannies. When a child is small, a nanny is boss and has the right to tell the child, though he is an heir, what to do. But when the child reaches adulthood, the nanny becomes a servant to the heir. While on this earth we are small children, while the angels, more powerful than we, take care of us. When we are in heaven, they are our servants. And beneath the angels, the whole new creation, in which the glory of God fills the earth from sea to sea. It is all God’s glory, shining through Christ, then the church, Christ’s body, then the angels and finally through the whole creation. What a glory that will be.
Prof. H. Hanko
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