4229. 第32章

最后的审判 (续)

我们从第三卷 (系指拉丁文的第3卷) 开始解释主在马太福音 24章关于最后审判的预言. 这些解释被放在了那一卷最后几章的开头部分, 目前已解释到31节 (参看3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3897-3901, 4056-4060节).

概括地说, 主的这些预言的内义从所给出的解释很清楚看出来, 即祂预言了教会的逐渐毁灭和最终一个新教会的建立, 其次序如下:

⑴教会成员不再知道何为良善与真理, 反而开始彼此争论它们.

⑵他们蔑视它们.

⑶他们从心里不承认它们.

⑷他们亵渎它们.

⑸由于信之真理和爱之良善仍存留在某些被称为 “选民” 的人当中, 故经上描述了那时信之真理所具有的状态.

⑹然后描述了仁的状态.

⑺最后论述了一个新教会的开始, 由最后所解释的那些话来表示, 即:

祂要差遣祂的使者, 用号筒的大声, 将祂的选民从四风, 从天这边到天那边, 都招聚了来. (马太福音 24:31)

这些话表示一个新教会的开始 (参看4060末尾节).

25. The Lord is called the Son of man when the subject is judgment. This is clear from the following:

When the Son of man comes in His glory..., then He will sit on the throne of His glory. And He will set the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. (Matthew 25:31, 33)

...when the Son of man sits on the throne of His glory..., He will judge the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matthew 19:28)

...the Son of man will come in the glory of His Father..., and then He will repay each person in accordance with his works. (Matthew 16:27)

Watch...always, that you may be held worthy...to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:36)

...the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24:44, Luke 12:40)

...the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son..., because He is the Son of man. (John 5:22, 27)

The Lord calls Himself the Son of man when the subject is judgment because all judgment is made in accordance with the Divine truth that is in the Word. That this is what judges everyone is something the Lord teaches in John:

If anyone hears My words and yet does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world.... ...the Word that I have spoken, it will judge him in the last day. (John 12:47-48)

And elsewhere:

(The Son of man did not come) to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:17-18)

That the Lord does not judge anyone to hell or cast anyone into hell, but that it is the evil spirit himself who judges and casts himself, may be seen in the book Heaven and Hell 545-550, 574.

The name of Jehovah, of the Lord, and of the Son of God, means Divine truth, thus also the Word, which originates from Him, is about Him, and so embodies Him.