CHRIST WILL COME.
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BUTthat Christ will come—“that same Jesus”—as literally as he was seen go up into heaven from Mount Olivet, we entertain not one doubt. That the dead will be raised and pass the final judgment, after which the wicked will go away into everlasting punishment—into the fire ofgehena, where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched, at the same time that the righteous enter into life eternal—we entertain not one doubt. These are clear and awful matters of divine revelation, and the main matters to set forth and enforce on men, and not theoriesaboutthese great matters. Is it true that a man may “lose his own soul?” that a man may be “cast into hell?” that “both soul and body” may be “destroyed in hell?” that wicked men “shall go away into everlasting punishment?” that they may be “tormented day and night, forever and ever?” Is it true that God “has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead?” Beyond all question, it is true. In raising Jesus from the dead, God has given assurance to all men that he will judge the world in righteousness. The assurance that God will judge the world in righteousness is the reason for repentance. He commands all men, everywhere, to repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.