Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/144

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first judgment, tut for no conceivable purpose, since they claim that a decision which is final and unalterable is ren- dered at death.

The entire time supposed to be assigned to this stupen- dous work of judging billions is a *wenty-four hour day. A discourse recently delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle voiced the genera! /iew on this subject. It affected to give a detailed account of the work of the Day of Judgment, representing it as completed within the limits of a single literal day.

This is a very crude conception, and is entirely out of harmony with the inspired Word. It is drawn from a too literal interpretation of our Lord's parable of the Sheep and the Goats. (Matt 25 : 31-46.) It illustrates the absurdity of attempting to force a literal interpretation upon figurative language. A parable is never an exact statement, but merely an illustration of a truth by something which is in many respects like it. If this parable were a literal statement of the manner in which the judgment will be conducted, it would apply to literal sheep and goats, just as it reads, and not to mankind at all. Let us now look at a more scrip- tural as well as a more reasonable view of the work and the result of the great Judgment Day which God hath appointed, with which reasonable and scriptural conclusions all para- bles and figures should and do agree.

The term judgment signifies more than simply the render- ing of a verdict. It includes the idea of a trial, as well as a decision based upon that trial. And this is true not only of the English word judgment, but also of the Greek word which it translates.

The term day, both in the Scriptures and in common usage, though most frequently used to represent a period of twelve or twenty-four hours, really signifies any definite or special period of time. Thus, for instance, we speak of

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