We have come to the last article in the Confession of Faith. The language of this article was born in great tribulation, as is evident from the paragraph which says, "All tears shall be wiped from their eyes; and their cause, which is now condemned by many judges and magistrates, will then be known to be the cause of the Son of God." It is as if there is an appeal to the highest tribunal, to the judgment seat of God. Then they will see how God graciously rewards His own church, and they may possess a glory that no eye has seen nor ear heard. This is truly the language of faith.

This article speaks about the return of Christ to the judgment, the last judgment. "Finally, we believe, according to the Word of God, when the time appointed by the Lord (which is unknown to all creatures) is come, and the number of the elect complete," then "our Lord Jesus Christ will come from heaven, corporally and visibly, as He ascended, with great glory and majesty to declare Himself Judge of the quick and the dead." All men, you and I, personally will appear before the great Judge. The books will be opened, the judgment will be pronounced, and the separation will be seen: the condemnation of the ungodly, but also the blessed inheritance of God's church. These are the contents of this article. We read of it in Acts 17:31, where Paul said, "Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness."

When the church speaks of this day in this article of faith, they do this not fearfully and tremblingly, but with great longing, with anticipation, waiting "with a most ardent desire to the end that we may fully enjoy the promises of God." They say, "The Lord has promised," and they wait with a strong longing for this day, as we read in Titus 2:13, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ."

We read in this article that we do not know when the coming of the Lord will be. The Lord has not made that known to us. We read in Mark 13:32, "But of that day and of that hour knoweth no man." And in Matthew 25:13 we read, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."

The coming of the Lord Jesus will have certain characteristics.

It will be a personal coming. Christ will not just send His angels, His messengers, to gather everyone to the heavenly places to stand before Him, but He will come Himself, in person.

His coming will be personal, as also His first coming was a personal coming. He will come in the person of the God and man, the blessed Mediator, but who then will be the Judge.

He will come visibly. All eyes will see Him, also His enemies. What a terrible sight that will be for them! They will cry out to the mountains and hills to cover them and hide them so that they will not have to stand before Him who is a consuming fire and everlasting burning, the Judge of heaven and earth.

The coming of the Judge of heaven and earth will be glorious. He will come with great glory. The Man of sorrows, the Man who was humbled and placed in a little manger, the One who was despised and rejected of men, will then come with great glory, surrounded by His heavenly angels.

His coming will also be sudden. He will come as a thief in the night. This coming will not be before the thousand years of which we read in Revelation 20: "When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea."

But Christ is Victor, and He will manifest that to His enemies. He will come to judge the nations, and everyone will be placed before His throne. We read, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away (because of His majesty); and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life." Then we read that "whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

What a solemn truth! He will come at the end of the thousand years, or the millennium. What does this mean? There are three positions in regard to the explanation of this text. There is the teaching of the pre-millennialists, there are the post-millennialists, and there are the a-millennialists.

The pre-millennialists teach that Christ will return at a certain time in history, and the saints who have fallen asleep will arise. Then His kingdom on earth will be established in Jerusalem. The saints will rule with Him on earth, and there will be a thousand years of peace and prosper­ity, also for the church on earth. Satan will be bound; and at the end of the thousand years there will be the resurrection of the wicked, immediately prior to the final judgment. There are different variations of pre-millennialism. Some are dispensationalists, of which there are also a variety of teachings. But all of them believe that Christ will return at the beginning of the millennium and will set up an earthly kingdom and will rule over His people from a throne in Jerusalem. Although sin and death will still exist, this will be a golden age of prosperity and happiness. After this millennium there will be the final state of all people.

The post-millennialists believe that Christ will come back only at the end of the millennium, at the end of the thousand years. Prior to the return of Christ to judge the living and the dead, there will be a great revival, particularly among the Jews, who will return not only to Israel but also to Jesus. That will be the beginning of a thousand-year period of prosperity and peace in the world. Many will be converted to Christianity through the proclamation of the gospel. Christian principles of belief will become the norm for nations and individuals. The millennium will be a time in which the world is gradually won over for Christ by the gospel. It will be a golden age of gradual increase for God's kingdom, a time of happiness and peace for the church. At the end of this millennium Christ will come. There will be a general resurrection, followed by an eternal judgment. It is evident that the kingdom which the post-millennialists teach is of quite an earthly character.

The a-millennialists believe that the thousand years are not to be taken literally, but that the thousand years is a symbolic number. When reading the book of Revelation, there are many numbers, and all are symbolic: seven churches, the seven golden candlesticks, the number of the beast, 666, the number of a man. Ten is the number of completeness. So ten times ten times ten is a complete time, but not to be taken to mean a literal thousand years, according to the a-millennialists. In that time the gospel will have finally been preached over the whole world. Then there will come a time when Satan will be unchained and will have, as we read in Matthew 24, the power and the freedom to deceive the nations. Nearly the whole world will walk after the beast, will believe him, and will believe that their leader is a kind of savior. Then there will be the anti-Christ, who will sit as a god upon his throne; he will reign in this world, although subject to the supreme reign of King Christ, unto whom is given all power in heaven and upon the earth. Christ will return and appear on the clouds and will be Judge, casting out the ungodly into eternal condemnation and bringing His people into eternal glory.

We do not believe in the pre-millennialist view. God's Word does not speak of a first and second coming back of Christ. The pre-millennialists base their ideas on Revelation 20, which speaks of a period of peace when the saints will reign with Christ. We believe this to be a spiritual reign of the souls who, as soon as they are taken up into glory, share in the glory of the heavenly places. So there will be a spiritual victory and a spiritual reign of the souls of the deceased saints in heaven, not upon this earth.

The pre-millennialist view must be considered in the light of what we so often read in the Word of God. We find even among the disciples that their views of the kingdom of Christ were so earthly. They wanted to see something here on this earth. These pre-millennialist opinions come from a wrong exegesis of Revelation 20, but also from natural desire (and this is understandable when one sees churches falling apart and the great apostasy of the whole world). Who would not long for a time when Christ would show visibly that He is King and will sit upon His throne in Jerusalem? Who would not desire that everyone might see that the Christians were right and that the Bible is true? But the Lord will fulfil that in another way. He will come back at His time and manifest His glory.

We believe in a millennium, but not in a literal thousand years. We believe that in the millennium the gospel will be preached and that Satan will be chained, which means that he cannot destroy the church and prevent the spreading of the gospel, although he may still oppress. He cannot ruin the church completely until the time comes when he will be unchained. Are we not living in that time? Are we not living in a time in which we see how Satan's power becomes more manifest? Although we do not know when Christ will come back, we do know that there are certain signs that will precede His return.

The Lord has warned His church to give heed to the signs of the times. He says to the hypocrites, "When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" (Matthew 16:2-3). Therefore we must know and give heed to the signs that preach the coming of Christ, the approaching coming of the King on the clouds. These signs are:

1. The preaching of the gospel throughout the whole world. We may also contribute a little to that by bringing the Word to Bolivia where there may be people who have never heard the gospel. At the time when Christ comes back, the lamp of the Word, the light of the gospel will have come to all nations; it will have been in all places. It was in Asia Minor and has departed from there. It has been in other places where it is now dark as the night, but it has been there. But there are still a few places where it has not yet been. Before Christ comes back, it will have been everywhere. That is what we read in Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."
2. The great apostasy, the falling away from the truth. Do we not see this also? Thirty years ago about 20% of the people in the Netherlands were without any religion or at least did not belong to a church; now the number is about 50%. Maybe as yet the numbers are not dropping so much in Canada and the United States, but the religion of many is becoming shallower and shallower, and we see a general falling away from the truth over the whole world. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
3. Another sign is that sin shall abound, as in the days of Noah. People will eat and drink, will live for pleasure and money. There will be a spirit of materialism, false ease, self-deceit; and there will be no shame. "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matthew 24:37).
4. There will be an increasing number of famines and earthquakes; certain signs which seem to say that the creation is shaking and trembling under the feeling that the King is coming. "And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places" (Matthew 24:7).
5. There shall be wars and rumors of wars. "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom" (Matthew 24:7).
6. We could also mention the severe oppression and persecution of the church. "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake" (Mat­thew 24:9). If you do not fit into the New Age, you will be hated. You may have some kind of religion, a mixture of eastern mystical religion and pagan beliefs, but if you believe that salvation is in none other, but only in that precious Redeemer, Jesus Christ, you will not fit anymore. You will be a stumbling block.
7. Love and care for others will grow cold. And are we not living in an increasingly cold society? It is not getting much warmer in the church, although the Lord has still left some­thing among us. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."
8. The antichrist shall reign. "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
9. Finally, that coming will be unexpected. It will be as a thief in the night.

But what will be the purpose of His coming? It will be to judge the quick and the dead. A solemn truth! It will be all mankind; you and I, not one of us excluded, will stand before Him. "For we must all appear (literally, 'be revealed') before the judgment seat of Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:10). And then the books will be opened; everything will be revealed, the hidden things of our heart and of our mind. Nothing will be hidden anymore. The Lord will recognize His own work and only His own work. All that is ours and all that is not of His work, all that is manmade, although perhaps with the appearance of godliness, will fall away. It may have impressed many; it may have had beauty of words; it may have had eloquence; it may have had an abounding knowledge; but if that true seed of grace is missing, it will fall away. Then a true creeper, one who did not dare to place himself among the people of God, but whose heart was yearning for God and His fellowship, who could not do without Him, who was truly sorry for his sins, in whose life Christ was many times hidden, but whose longing was, "O that I may know Him, that I may be His," whose heart has been inclined to surrender to Him and to give up himself unto Him, will not be put to shame.

It will be the time of which we read in Matthew 25:32, "And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." The angels will be sent out to gather the elect into the glorious presence of Christ, but they shall also assemble the wicked before His judgment seat.

Then we will see the difference. We read, "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." Hidden hypocrisy will be revealed, but also God's true work will be made manifest. For the ungodly it will be a terrible time, for their consciences will then speak loudly, and they will have to submit to that testimony. They will not be able to silence or contradict their consciences anymore, to excuse themselves. And also they will not be able to find one excuse for having remained an unbeliever. They will be immortal. Oh, they will wish that they could die under the mountains and the hills. Then in despair they will cry out, "May this be the end," but it will just be the beginning. They will go into everlasting fire. We read in Malachi 4:1, "And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." That is the great day.

But then in the next verse we read of the Sun of righteousness. There is comfort for the godly:

1. That day will be the hour of their deliverance from all sin, temptations, sorrow, and grief. Revelation 7:16-17 will become a reality: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
2. We also read that they will receive the fruits of their labors, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7. They shall receive rest and glory when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.
3. Then their innocence – innocence in the blood and righteousness of the Lamb – will be revealed, confirmed, and known by everyone.
4. They will receive a blessed reward and a gracious inheritance. "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him" (Isaiah 64:4).

There is the testimony that the Lord is coming. What should that cause us to do? Luther said that if he knew that tomorrow the Lord would come back, today he would still plant a tree. In other words, he would still do his work, and he would continue to fulfil his obligation with the help of the Lord. Yet there is an obligation for the church of God. They should walk carefully in this world in this time when the days are evil. As the apostle says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Arnoldus van Rotterdam speaks of the obligations of believers. They should give thanks to God for the hope they receive from Him. They should also often meditate upon His coming and upon the inheritance promised. They should live in true godliness and not cease in the warfare against sin. They should also heartily long for the future of the Son of God and patiently wait for that great day, of which we read in 2 Peter 3:13, "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

Then it will appear that a weak, troubled, despised people will be more than conquerors. This is the victory that will overcome the world, that is, their faith. I know that this faith is also a gift; they could not exercise it in their own strength; but they will in Him, in Christ, be more than conquerors.

We will close this discussion. And "therefore we expect that great day." What is our expectation? Is it that we may be ready when the Bridegroom comes, to meet Him, to rejoice in Him?

Those who loved His appearance will give Him all the honor for what He has so graciously given them.