"Is it a question of the end of the world in all this? Opinions are divided on this point. Some commentators think that, in these texts, Jesus Christ simply prophesied the ruin of the religion, republic, and nation of the Jews; and that all the circumstances were verified when the Romans took and destroyed the nation; that, however, a few expressions ought not to be taken literally, such as the fall of the stars, etc.; that Jesus Christ has used the same style, and the same images used by prophets, when they prophesied other events. Consequently these commentators say that these words of Jesus Christ, 'This generation shall not pass,' etc., signify, the Jews who now live will not all be dead when these events will take place. In fact, Jerusalem was taken and ruined less than forty years after. In this opinion it is not a question in these texts of the end of the world. "Other commentators believe that Jesus Christ has joined the signs, which were to precede the devastation of Judea, to those which will appear at the end of the world, and before the general judgment; that when he says: 'This generation shall not pass,' etc., he means that the Jewish nation will not be entirely destroyed, but will subsist till the end of the world. It cannot be denied that the word generation is used several times in this sense in the Gospel." From this passage of Bergier we draw the following argument: Since the Roman Catholic theologians were, and are, divided in regard to the meaning of the above texts, it follows that the Church of Rome did not rest her doctrine of a general judgment on the above text. Therefore the Church of Rome did not understand the above texts, namely, the 24th chapter of Matthew, and the last sixteen verses of the 25th:--the 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th verses of the 13th chapter in Mark; and also the 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th verses of the 21st chapter in Luke, as meaning a general judgment. 2d. We prove that nearly all the Christian sects, or denominations, of the first and of the second centuries, did not believe the doctrine of a general judgment. The Basilidians, the Valentinians, the Marcionites, the Marcosians, the Theodotians, the Carpocratians, the Docetes, the Tatianists, the Apellites, the Montanists, the Artotyrites, the Ascites, the Ascodrutes, the Ophites, the Cainites, and the Hermogenians believed in Metempsychosis, and denied the resurrection of the body. From the fact that these sects believed in Metempsychosis, and denied the resurrection of the body, we argue: The doctrine of a general judgment supposes the resurrection of all the dead; but the above sects denied the resurrection of the dead. Therefore they denied also the doctrine of a general judgment. Therefore nearly all the Christian sects, or denominations, of the first and of the second centuries, did not believe the doctrine of a general judgment.