39), is not inconsistent with the
anticipation of a final judgment (John xii. 48, v. 27). This judgment
presupposes the resurrection, belief in which was rejected by the
Sadducees, but accepted by the Pharisees and the majority of the Jewish
people, and confirmed by Christ, not only as an individual spiritual
renovation (John v. 25, 26), but as a universal physical resuscitation
(28 and 29; Matt. xxii. 30). This resurrection is of the unjust as well
as the just (Matt. v. 29, 30, x. 28; Luke xiv. 14). On the _Intermediate
State_ Jesus does not speak clearly. He uses the term Hades twice
metaphorically (Matt. xi. 23, xvi. 18), and once in a parable, the "Rich
Man and Lazarus" (Luke xvi. 23), in which he employs the current phrases
such as "Abraham's bosom" (verse 22), without any definite doctrinal
intention, to unveil the secrets of the hereafter by confirming with His
authority the common beliefs of His time. The term Paradise (Luke xxiii.
43) seems to be used "in a large and general sense as a word of hope and
comfort," and we need not attach to it any of the more definite
associations which it had in Jewish eschatology. When he speaks of death
as "sleep" (Luke viii. 52; John xi. 11) it is to give men gentler and
sweeter thoughts of it, not to inculcate the doctrine of an intermediate
state as an unconscious condition. There are words which suggest rather
the hope of an immediate entrance of the just into the Father's house
and glory (John xiv. 2, 3, xvii. 24). He spoke frequently and distinctly
both of final reward for the righteous and final penalty for the wicked.
"The recompense of the righteous is described as an inheritance,
entrance into the kingdom, treasure in heaven, an existence like the
angelic, a place prepared, the Father's house, the joy of the Lord,
life, eternal life and the like; and there is no intimation that the
reward is capable of change, that the condition is a terminable one. The
retribution of the wicked is described as death, outer darkness, weeping
and wailing and gnashing of teeth, the undying worm, the quenchless
fire, exclusion from the kingdom, eternal punishment and the like"
(S.D.J. Salmond in Hastings's _Bible Dictionary_, p. 752). Degrees of
award are recognized (Luke xii. 47, 48). Gehenna is applied to the
condition of the lost (Matt. xviii. 9). Two sayings are held to point to
a terminable penalty (Matt. v. 25, 26, xii. 31, 32), but the one is so
figurative and the other so obscure, that we are not warranted in
drawing any such definite conclusion from either of them. The finality
of destiny seems to be unmistakably expressed (Matt. vii. 23, x. 33,
xiii. 30, xxv. 46, xxvi. 24; Mark ix. 43-48, viii. 36; Luke ix. 26; John
iii. 16, viii. 21, 24). No second opportunity for deciding the issue of
life or death is recognized by Jesus.
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