Christ About to Judge the World -- in the 1st Century

Christ About to Judge the World -- in the 1st Century

Below is the 21st of multiple excerpts from The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell. "CHRIST SOON TO JUDGE THE WORLD. "ACTS xvii. 31. [Acts 17:31]---'Because he hath appointed day in the which he will judge [is about to judge] the world [Greek: oikoumene] in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained. ....' "We have already seen that the Lord Jesus Christ is declared to be constituted the Judge of men (John v. 22, 27 [John 5:22, 27]). As clearly it is declared that the time of judgment is the Parousia [Second Coming; Matt. 16:27, 25:31-33; 2 Thess. 1:6-10]. With equal distinctness we are taught that the Parousia was to fall within the term of the [1st-century] generation then living [Matt. 10:23, 16:28, 24:34, 26:64; Mark 9:1, 13:30, 14:62; Luke 9:27, 21:32, 22:69; Rev. 1:7]. The judgment was therefore viewed by St. Paul as being near. We have in the passage now before us an incidental but unnoticed confirmation of this fact. The words [translated by the King James Version as] 'he will judge' do not express a simple future, but a speedy future, [Greek:] mellei krinein, [meaning] He is about to judge, or will soon judge. This shade of meaning is not preserved in our English [King James] version, but it is not unimportant. "Here, then, we are again met by the oft-recurring association of the Parousia and the judgment, both of which were evidently [i.e., in an evident or clear manner] regarded by the apostle as nigh at hand."

Next post on blog: The Second Coming in 1st Thessalonians

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