CONCORDANT STUDIES
THE JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS
(Matthew 25:31-46)
TREMENDOUS JUDGMENT upon the nations of the earth, certain and sudden, has long been predicted by Israel’s prophets. Quite a number of passages in the Greek Scriptures (New Testament) are concerned with this theme as well. The time is coming, when the day of the Lord begins to unfold, when men will say, “Peace and security.” Yet it is at that very time when extermination will be standing by them unawares—“even as a pang over the pregnant, and they may by no means escape” (1 Thess.5:2,3).
The Lord’s words in Luke 21:24-27 direct us to this period as
well: “And they shall be falling by the edge of the sword and shall be led into
captivity into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden by the nations, until the eras
of the nations may be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and the
constellations, and on the earth pressure of nations in perplexity, at the resounding of
the sea and the shaking, at the chilling of men from fear and apprehensiveness of that
which is coming on the inhabited earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And
then they shall be seeing the Son of Mankind coming in a cloud with power and much
glory.”
Similarly, let us also note Matthew 24:7-9: “For roused shall
be a nation against a nation, and a kingdom against a kingdom, and there shall be famines
and quakes in places. Yet all these are the beginning of pangs. Then shall they be giving
you up to affliction, and they shall be killing you, and you shall be hated by all of the
nations because of My name.”
Incredible as it may seem, in due time, near the consummation of
the eon, man’s wickedness and blindness will have become so intensified that the
earth’s armies will be mobilized against God’s Christ. This will occur at the
place called, in Hebrew, Armageddon (Rev.16:16). This is at the city of Megiddo, about 60
miles north of Jerusalem. Here is what will happen, as recorded by the apostle John:
“And I perceived heaven open, and lo! a white horse. And He
Who is sitting on it is called ‘Faithful and True,’ and in righteousness is He
judging and battling. Now His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems,
having names written of which no one except Himself is aware, and He is clothed in a cloak
dipped in blood, and His name is called ‘The Word of God.’ And the armies in
heaven, dressed in cambric, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. And out of His
mouth a sharp blade is issuing, that with it He should be smiting the nations. And He will
be shepherding them with an iron club. And He is treading the wine trough of the fury of
the indignation of God, the Almighty. And on His cloak and on His thigh He has a name
written: ‘King of kings and Lord of lords . . . .’
“And I perceived the wild beast and the kings of the earth and
their armies, gathered to do battle with Him Who is sitting on the horse and with His
army. And the wild beast is arrested, and with it the false prophet who does the signs in
its sight, by which he deceives those getting the emblem of the wild beast, and those
worshiping its image. Living, the two were cast into the lake of fire burning with
sulphur. And the rest were killed with the blade[1] which is coming out
of the mouth of Him Who is sitting on the horse. And all the birds are satisfied with
their flesh” (Rev.19:11-21).
This terrible event is spoken of much earlier by Jeremiah
(25:30-33): “Yahweh is roaring from the height, and is giving forth His voice from
His holy habitation . . . .Yahweh has a contention with the nations. He enters into
judgment with all flesh. The wicked He gives to the sword . . . . They shall not be
bewailed, nor gathered, nor entombed. They shall become for manure on the surface of the
ground.”
Similarly, Zechariah 14:12: “And this shall come to be the
stroke with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples who mustered their hosts against
Jerusalem: Putrefied is their flesh, yet they are standing on their feet, and their eyes
shall putrefy in their holes, and their tongue shall putrefy in their mouths.” Also,
Isaiah 63:2-4: “‘For what reason is there red on Thy clothing, and Thy garments
are as the treader’s in a wine trough?’ ‘The winepress I trod alone, and of
the peoples there is no man with Me, and I am treading them in My anger, and trampling
them in My fury, and their gore is spattering on My garments, and all My clothing I sully.
For the day of vengeance came for them, and the year of My redeemed has come.’”
And, Revelation 6:16,17: “And they are saying to the mountains and to the rocks,
‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him Who is sitting on the throne, and from
the indignation of the Lambkin, for the great day of Their indignation came, and who is
able to stand?’”
Humanity will be at the depths of its depravity, for all dwelling
on the earth will be worshiping Satan: “ . . . the whole earth marvels after the wild
beast. And they worship the dragon, seeing that it gives authority to the wild beast. And
they worship the wild beast, saying, ‘Who is like the wild beast?’ and ‘Who
is able to battle with it?’” (Rev.13:3b,4). Yet in the destruction which
follows, when the armies of the earth prepare for battle against God, they are obliterated
before they can even move into position. Subsequently, the wild beast and the false
prophet are cast into the lake of fire. Satan himself is chained and cast into the abyss
and imprisoned there a thousand years (Rev.20:3). Thus all opposition to the establishment
of the Messiah’s kingdom is silenced. Then it is that the seventh messenger trumpets:
“And loud voices occurred in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of this world became
our Lord’s and His Christ’s, and He shall be reigning for the eons of the eons!
Amen!’” (Rev.11:15).
References may be found even in the Psalms to the One Who someday
will judge all the nations (e.g., Psa.67:4; 82:8). The prophet Zephaniah gave this warning
in 3:8: “Wherefore, tarry for Me (averring is Yahweh), for the day of My rising to
testify, seeing that My judgment is to gather the nations, to convene the kingdoms,
to pour out My menace upon them, all the heat of My anger, for, by the fire of My
jealousy, the entire earth shall be devoured [subjected to widespread ruin and
devastation].”
The prophet Joel gives further details: “For, behold, in those
days, and in that season, when I shall turn back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I
will also convene all the nations and bring them down to the vale of Jehoshaphat. And I
enter into judgment with them there concerning My people, and My allotment, Israel, whom
they disperse among the nations, and My land which they apportion” (Joel 3:1,2).
“Proclaim this among the nations! Hallow a war! Rouse the masters! All the mortals of
war shall come close and ascend. Pound your mattocks into swords and your pruning hooks
into lances! The defeatist shall say, A master am I! Mobilize and come, all nations from
round about! And they are convened. There, Yahweh, settle Your masters! All the nations
shall rouse and ascend to the vale of Jehoshaphat. For there will I sit to judge all the
nations from round about. Send forth the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for
the wine trough is full, the wine vats run over, for great is their evil. Throngs, throngs
in the vale of decision! The sun and the moon are somber, and the stars gather in their
brightness. And Yahweh shall roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem shall He give forth His
voice, and the heavens and the earth shall quake. Yet Yahweh is a refuge for His people,
and a stronghold for the sons of Israel” (Joel 3:9-16).
THE SEVERING OF THE NATIONS
Finally, after the kingdom is established, comes the judgment of
the nations themselves by the Son of Mankind before the throne of His glory. “Now,
whenever the Son of mankind may be coming in His glory, and all the holy messengers with
Him, then shall He be seated on the throne of His glory, and in front of Him shall be
gathered all the nations. And He shall be severing them from one another
even as a shepherd is severing the sheep from the kids. And He shall be standing the
sheep, indeed, at His right, yet the kids at the left” (Matt.25:31-33).
The mere fact that this revelation is given in Matthew and
concerns nations should settle the question of its application. Matthew is the kingdom
account. It is intensely national. Matthew’s account is devoted especially to
the King and contains the kingdom charter (cf Matt.5-7). Here Christ quotes Isaiah
(42:1-3) to the effect that judging shall He be reporting to the nations
(Matt.12:18). Isaiah goes right on to say (42:4) that He shall continue until He shall
place judgment in the earth, and for His law the coastlanders (“nations,”
Septuagint) will wait. It is the nations of the earth themselves which are figured by the
sheep and the kids, and it is the nations, as such, which take part in these
judgments.
It is well to note that the names or even the genus of those spoken
of here as His “holy messengers” is not revealed. It is enough to know that they
are “holy” messengers, ones of high station themselves, for they are the retinue
of the Son of Mankind, the very Sovereign of the universe.
By this time all opposition from the nations has been obliterated.
Their leaders along with their military forces have been destroyed. A new political order
needs to be established, a government under the headship of God’s people Israel.
Under the new covenant, God will put His spirit into the people of
Israel. This will soften their hearts and cause them to walk in His law (Jer.31:31-34;
Ezek.36:25-28). Then this nation of “priests” (Ex.19:6; SACRED-[one]s),
chosen because of God’s love for their fathers (Deut.4:37; 7:7,8; 10:15), will
hearken to the voice of Yahweh their Elohim, to observe and to keep all His instructions.
And He will give them supremacy over all the nations of the earth (cp Deut.28:1).
All the blessings promised by Moses will finally be their own—“all these
blessings will come on you and overtake you in case you should hearken to the voice of
Yahweh your Elohim” (Deut.28:2). “So Yahweh will make you to be the head and not
the tail, and you will surely be above, and you shall not be below” (Deut.28:13a).
In order to commence the establishing of the kingdom, the King, the
Son of Humanity, will gather all the nations before the throne of His glory. Perhaps the
way this will occur is through representatives, as will evidently be the case when
“All flesh shall come to worship before Me in Jerusalem, says Yahweh,” as often
as the new moon comes in its monthly time, and as often as the sabbath comes in its
sabbath cycle (Isa.66:23).
After all the nations are gathered before Him, He will be
“severing them from one another even as a shepherd is severing the sheep from the
kids” (Matt.25:32).
“Obadiah actually gives us an example of this judgment
recorded in Matthew. Speaking of Edom, he says: ‘Because of wrong done to your
brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off for the eon’ (Obadiah
1:10). The basis of the judgment is found in these words (Obadiah 15,18): ‘For near
is the day of Yahweh over all the nations, Just as you do, it shall be done to you.
Your requital shall return on your own head . . . . And the house of Jacob shall
become a fire, and the house of Joseph a blaze, and the house of Esau for straw, and they
shall flare among them and devour them. And there shall not be a survivor for the house of
Esau, for Yahweh speaks.’
“Perhaps Esau will receive the most severe judgment of any in
that day. Yahweh has spoken of no other as he did of Jacob’s brother: ‘Esau I
hate.’ In that day judgment will be executed by the ruling nation; hence we read that
Jacob is a fire and Joseph a blaze. Once poor Jacob trembled before his more warlike
brother; but then the tables will be turned. Esau will be as straw, devoured by the fiery
judgments of that day. Edom was continually antagonistic to Israel, so will have no power
in the kingdom. They depart into ‘the fire made ready for the adversary and his
messengers.’ As a nation, Edom will be consumed by the judgment. Esau slandered and
opposed Israel as no other; consequently, this judgment was prepared for him and other
adversaries like him.
“The nations in the kingdom, during the millennium and in the
new earth, will be allotted a place corresponding to their previous political treatment of
Israel. Some will receive special blessings because they were kind to them. Others will be
most severely disciplined because they had made no effort to alleviate their lot.
‘These shall be coming away into chastening eonian, yet the just into life
eonian.’ Such is the only possible import of these much-abused words, when they are
kept connected with their context, and viewed within the scope of the account which
contains them. Matthew continues and completes the kingdom testimony of the
prophets, and is in perfect agreement with it. As Son of Mankind our Lord will adjudicate
among the nations. All the debts of Israel must be paid. All wrongs must be
recompensed.”[2]
It is evident—and propitiously so for the “sheep”
nations at His right—that they will not be judged solely for their acts in the time
of the end when they were under Babylon’s influence, otherwise none would be blessed.
For during their great affliction Israel will be hated by every nation (Matt.24:9);
the nations, without exception, will be angered (Rev.11:18), and all will be in the toils
of Babylon (Rev.14:8). Therefore it must be the respective nations’ characteristic
disposition toward Israel throughout all the eras of the nations which forms the basis of
their judgment. It was during this long interval that the Jews were scattered among all
nations and suffered the persecution by the left-hand nations. Likewise, it was during
this same extensive period that the right-hand nations received their opportunities to
provide the Jews with food and clothing, drink and shelter. Thus all the contacts
of the nations with Israel are included, which have varied greatly from time to time.
In the figure “kids,” we have the nations who declined to
aid God’s people Israel in their distress. In a context dealing with nations,
the Son of Mankind’s “brethren” (Matt.25:40), can be none other than the
nation of Israel. It is they who are His brethren, His relatives according to the flesh (cp
Rom.9:3,4). The nations will be judged according as they have treated God’s nation,
and they, not individuals, will receive eonian chastening and eonian life.
Those nations who helped Israel—the “sheep” of this
passage—are invited into the glorious eonian kingdom. That will be “life”
indeed! The rest are pruned off, and, in the figurative language used, sent away
“into the fire eonian.” Under strict “eonian chastening” (the parallel
expression), though mortal life will continue, these nations will be excluded from the
privileges which are centered upon Israel and which the nation of Israel will enjoy. With
these contextual thoughts in view, we can better understand these special usages appearing
before us of, “eonian life,” and “eonian chastening.”
EONIAN CHASTENING
Perhaps the most common objection we receive concerning the eons is
the argument that if “everlasting punishment” should ever come to an end, then
“life eternal” (Matt.25:46, AV) would do the same. This popular assertion,
however, is fallacious. The fact that such a claim should so long endure and conquer, is
proof of the power of deception. If, on some grounds, it is true that those spoken of here
as the recipients of a certain life will indeed, eventually, be the recipients of
endless life, it does not follow that the life spoken of here speaks of the endless life
into which they will one day enter. Similarly, it does not follow, if the judgment here is
eonian and therefore the life is eonian as well, that when this period of life for
those in view ends, all life for those in view ends. Such a notion is as foolish as
would be the notion that when one’s teen-age years come to an end doubtlessly
one’s life comes to an end.
Instead of the usual rendering, these words should be translated
“chastening eonian” and “life eonian.” By its ending, -sis, kolasis
(“chastening”) refers not to a state, but to an action continuing on. And it has
in view[3] an action performed not as a penal infliction, but one with a
view toward amendment or rectification. Since God is love, and wills to save all, His
ultimate purpose in even His most severe judgments could never be the “eternal
punishment” of anyone. He cannot deny Himself.
Indeed, it is well known that even the secular usage of kolasis
had in view not some kind of terrible vindictive punishment, but acts done for the sake of
betterment or correction.[4] In the Scriptures, in Acts 4:21, the Jews
released John and Peter, “finding nothing how they should be chastening
them.” Did they not aim to reform them? Was not their “chastening” with a
view toward their returning to the unbelieving Jewish fold? From their standpoint the word
was certainly used to convey the idea of reformation. To show that it had this meaning in
Greek usage, we cite Plato: “For if, O Socrates, you will consider what is the design
of punishing kolazein the wicked, this of itself will show you that men think
virtue something that may be acquired; for no one punishes kolazei the wicked
looking to the past only, simply for the wrong he has done—that is, no one does
this thing who does not act like a wild beast, desiring only revenge, without
thought—hence he who seeks to punish (kolazein) with reason, does not punish
for the sake of the past wrong deed, but for the sake of the future, that neither the man
himself who is punished, may do wrong again, nor any other who has seen him chastised. And
he who entertains this thought, must believe that virtue may be taught, and he punishes
(kolazei) for the purpose of deterring from wickedness.”[5]
It must be kept in mind that the words kolasin aionion
(“chastening eonian”) in Matthew 25:46 are in reference to national judgments
which the Son of Mankind will make in the day of the Lord, “whenever [He] may be
coming in His glory” (Matt.25: 31). These judgments concern the kingdom of the
heavens, and are to be implemented in the coming eon. This judgment of God, in no small
part, is prompted by the unworthy way in which many of the living nations will treat the
people of Israel in the time of her great affliction, in the conclusion of this present
eon. Concerning the judgments of that day, Isaiah declares, “For as a light are Your
judgments to the earth [O Yahweh], the dwellers of the habitance learn
righteousness” (Isa.26:9b). Instead of suffering “the eternal torments of the
damned,” the nations will “learn righteousness”!
James Coram
[1] These “supreme sinners . . . shall be tormented until they die . . . . some of them by the blade (Rev.19:21)” (CONCORDANT COMMENTARY, p.397). [2] A. E. Knoch, UNSEARCHABLE RICHES, vol.35, pp.268-271 [3] This is not to say that “eonian chastening” does not entail penalty (i.e., punishment or penalization), but that it speaks of a judgment imposed with a view to the amendment of its subjects. [4] e.g., cf John Wesley Hanson: EON, EONIAN, Northwestern Universalist Publishing House (1875), pp.50-55; F. W. Farrar: ETERNAL HOPE, pp. 199-201; MERCY AND JUDGMENT, pp.407-409 [5] *Hanson, op. cit., p.53; quotation from Protag., Sec.38, vol.1, p.252 |
