Tag Archives: Judgment Day

Edward Taylor, When thy bright beams

13 Friday Jan 2017

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(Judgment Day, Michelangelo)

When thy bright beams, my Lord, do strike mine eye
Methinks I then could truly chide outright
My hidebound soul that stands so niggardly
That scarce a thought get glorified by’t.
My quaintest metaphors are ragged stuff, 5
Making the sun seem like a mullipuff.

It is my desire thou should’st be glorified:
But when thy glory shines before mine eye,
I pardon crave, lest my desire be pride.
Or bed thy glory in a cloudy sky 10
The sun grows wan; and angels palefac’d shrink,
Before thy shine, which I besmirch with ink.

But shall the bird sing forth thy praise, and shall
The little bee present her thankful hum,
But I who see thy shinning glory fall 15
Before mine eyes, stand blockish, dull, and dumb?
Whether I speak or speechless star, I spy,
I fail thy glory, therefore pardon cry.

But this I find, my rhymes do better suit
Mine own dispraise than tune forth praise to thee. 20
Yet being child, whether consonant or mute
I force my tongue to tattle as you see
That I thy glorious praise may trumpet right
Be thou my song and make Lord me thy pipe.

This shining sky will fly away apace, 25
When thy bright glory splits the same to make
Thy majesty pass, whose fairest face
Too foul a path is for thy feet to take.
What glory then, shall tend thee through the sky
Draining the heaven much of angels dry? 30

What light then flame will in thy judgment seat,
‘Fore which all men and angels shall appear?
How shall thy glorious righteousness them treat,
Rendering to each after his works done here?
Then saints with angels though wilt glorify: 35
And burn lewd men and devils gloriously.

One glimpse, my Lord, of thy bright Judgment Day
And glory piercing through, like fiery darts,
All devils, doth me make for grace to pray.
For filling grace had I ten thousand hearts. 40
I’d through ten hells to see thy Judgment Day
Woulds’t though but guild my soul with thy bright rays.

Notes:
This poem begins with a familiar complaint in Taylor’s poems on the Ascension: The beauty and glory of the scene have such transcendent wonder that no word of the poet can suffice to match what is seen. In the first stanza, he complains of his ability, My hidebound soul that stands so niggardly/That scarce a thought gets glorified by’t”.

The trouble does not lie with his wish, “It is my desire”. But when he sees the glory of Christ, rather than responding with appropriate praise, repents, “I pardon crave”. This is a point which may easily lost: The glory of Christ is such that the one who sees condemns himself, such as when Peter has an inkling who Jesus is he calls out, “Depart from me, for a I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Luke 5:8.

The glory of Christ is so create that the Creation itself shrinks back at his greater beauty,
“The sun grows wan”. Even angels, the most glorious of creature, “palefac’d shrink”. If the most glorious elements of creation (the sun, angels) cannot respond to such glory, then how I how hope to do so: (“bed [set] thy glory in a cloudy sky …./ which I besmirch with ink”).

Having spent two stanzas complaining of his weakness to do this work, he notes that humbler creatures, birds and bees, do their work of praising him: then why should I “who see thy shining glory full” not respond but “stand blockish, dull, and dumb”.

And so there is no escape from the paradox: if he praises or stands quiet, he fails to respond adequately to Christ’s glory:

Whether I speak, or speechless stand, I spy [I see]
I fail thy glory: therefore pardon cry.

He then does something interesting: he comments upon his own ability and states that his best poetical gift lies in his expression of his inadequacy to respond to the glory, rather than to praise the glory:

But this I find: my rhymes to better suit
Mine own dispraise than tune forth praise to thee. [the repetition of “praise” well balances the line]

However, having gone this far, he will force himself to praise, “I will force my tongue to tattle” (here it does not have the force of “telling on someone”). And he invokes the help of Christ to praise Christ: “Be thou my song, and make Lord me thy pipe”. The image alludes to the ancient concept that the Spirit’s inspiration of the Scripture was like one playing upon an instrument.

At this point, he begins to praise Christ, but chooses an interesting subject for praise — and one that might seem out-of-place if one does not know the context (The Carmin Christi of Philippians 2): the day of Judgment: The song begins before the Incarnation. The Divine Son willingly becomes Incarnate to bear the weight of the Curse and then Ascends in glory – the God-man having been received by God [when we combine the Trinity and the Incarnation, it becomes constantly paradoxical].

But the exaltation of the Son will be not just the reception of God but the entire Creation’s proclamation of his lordship:

9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9–11 (AV). The bended knee comes about either joyfully or involuntarily as a direct result of Christ’s glory. There is no choice in the matter, the glory of Christ will overwhelm all.

This helps explain Judgment: it is the vindication of Christ. Within Christian theology, it is a sin a to go to Hell and be condemned. Human beings are commanded to repent and be saved. God commands human beings to not go to Hell. Hell was not intended for human beings (it was created for the Devil and his angels). Christ has fully carried the weight of the Curse and will pronounce free grace and forgiveness upon all who will receive it. Thus, it is only continued rebellion against Love which results in damnation.

The great exaltation of Philippians 2 takes place in the vindication of Christ when all Creation (whether joyfully or not) confesses Christ’s lordship.

At this point, Taylor joins the theme of Creation blushing before the glory of Christ and Christ’s return in Judgment. He takes an image from Isaiah concerning the sky rolled upon like a scroll:

Isaiah 34:4 (AV)
4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

This image is repeated in Revelation and is again explicitly tied to Judgment:
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Revelation 6:12–17 (AV)

The sky is rolled up because it cannot stand before Christ’s greater glory. Heaven will be “drained” of angels because the armies of heaven will come with Christ in his return (Revelation 19).

The scene moves from the Descent of Christ to the Judgment Seat:
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 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: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Revelation 20:11–12 (AV).

In this last stanza, the glory which overwhelmed Taylor with its beauty, the glory which the Creation could not bear, now becomes an instrument of judgment for those who refused to receive the “Lord of Glory”:

One glimpse, my Lord, of thy bright Judgment Day
And glory piercing through, like fiery darts,
All devils,

Thus, the glory of Christ is a “fiery dart” which pierces “all devils”. There is a pun here based upon Paul’s characterization of the Devil’s attack upon the Saints as an assault of “fiery darts”

16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Ephesians 6:16 (AV).

Taylor ends with a prayer that the glory of Christ will be sufficient to lead him. He would willingly march through Hell to see Christ’s glory on Judgment Day.

Another note on construction: the poem begins and ends with the “bright rays” of Christ. The first rays are seen on the Ascension. The final rays are the prayed for rays of Judgment.

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation XXXIV

09 Friday Dec 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized, William Spurstowe

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The previous post in this series may be found here.

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MEDITATION XXXIV
Upon the Putting Out of a Candle

Light and darkness are in Scripture the two most usual expressions by which happiness and misery are set forth unto us. Hell and Heaven which will one day divide the whole world between them and become the sole mansions of endless woe and blessedness are described: the one to be a place of outward darkness, and the other an inheritance of light.

But it is observable also that as the happiness of worldly men and believes is wholly differing; so the light to which the one and the other is resembled is wholly discrepant. The happiness of the wicked worldling is compared to a candle which is a feeble and dim light, which consumes itself by burning, always put out by every small puff of wind. But the prosperity and happiness of the righteous is not, lucerna in domo, a candle in a house; but sol in Coelo, as the sun in heaven which though it may be clouded or eclipsed yet can never be extinguished or interrupted in its course, but that it will shine more and more onto the perfect day till it comes to the fullness of bliss and glory in heaven.

May we not then rather bemoan, than envy, the best condition of worldly man, who comes out of a dark womb into a dark world, and has no healing beams of the Son of Righteousness arising upon him to enlighten his paths or to direct his steps. What if he some few strictures of light which the creatures, that are no better than a rush candle, to seem to refresh him with, and in the confidence which he walks for a time — yet alas! How suddenly do the damps of affliction make such a light to burn blue and to expire and leave him as lost in the pitchy shades of anguish and despair? How do the terrors of darkness multiply upon him every moment all those evils that a restless fancy can suggest? He sees nothing and yet he speaks of ghastly shapes that stand before him: He cannot tell who hurts him, and yet he complains of the stinging of serpents, of the torments of fiery flames, or the wracking of his limbs.

If he have cordials put into his mouth, he spits them out again as if they were the gall of asps. Of if he have food ministered unto him, he wholly rejects it as that which will help to lengthen his miserable life. And yet die he dares not, lest worse things befall him.

If death approach, he then cries out as Crisorius in Gregory, a truce, a respect Lord until the morning. So great are his straits as that he knows now what to choose or where to fly. O that I could then affect some fond [foolish] worldlings with the vanity and sickness of their condition, who have nothing to secure them from an endless night of darkness but the wan and pale light of a few earthly comforts, which are ofttimes far shorter than their lives, but never can be one moment longer.

Have you no wisdom to consider that your life is but a span and that all your delights are not so much? Have you never read of a state of blessedness in which it is said that there shall be no night, and they need no candle, neither the light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever? Or are you so regardless of the future as that you will resolvedly hazard what can never fall out for the present satisfaction of some inordinate desires? Do you not fear the threatening of him who said, The candle of the wicked shall be put out.

O then while it si called today makes David’s prayer from your heart, say,
Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us,
Thou shalt put gladness in my heart more than in the time my corn and wine increased.

Thomas Watson, 24 Helps to Read the Scripture

02 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Reading, Scripture, Thomas Watson, Uncategorized

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In this section, Watson gives a general proposition, three motivations and a rebuke.

First, the general proposition: Read the Scripture with seriousness:

VI. Read the word with seriousness. I one go over the Scripture cursorily, says Erasmus, there is little good to be got by it; but if he be serious in reading it, it is the savor of life; and well may we be serious if we consider the importance of those truths which are bound up in this sacred volume. Deut. 32:47: “It is not a vain thing for you; it is your life.” If a letter were to be broken open and read, wherein a man’s whole estate were concerned, how serious would he be in reading it.

Watson does not give further explanation of what he means by seriousness; however, some consideration will make the point clear. First, seriousness at the least requires undivided attention. Go into a room where someone else is intently watching a movie or a sporting event at a critical juncture. Their entire attention is focused upon that one thing and any distraction is likely to upset them. If the Scripture is as serious as fictional characters in a petty conflict, then certainly reading the Scripture must require focused attention.

Second, seriousness must entail an earnest consideration. Children plummeted into a game will give themselves heart and soul to some task.  They will not merely give undivided attention but they will consider each aspect earnestly: it matters how this matter concludes.

Third, seriousness a willingness to respond as a result of the information received. Your friend watching a movie may give undivided attention and earnest consideration to the movie — but once it is over, your friend is not likely to move to Manhattan to be of assistance to the character whose life has been upended by a surprise revelation. When the movie is over, your friend quickly forgets what has taken place.

Yet, when we read the Scripture, we must read it with a seriousness that we are transformed by what we have read.

Watson now gives three examples why Scripture requires such seriousness.  First, Scripture is serious because it concerns Christ, the Lord and King of Creation:

In the Scripture our salvation is concerned; it treats of the love of Christ, a serious subject. Christ hath loved mankind more than the angels that fell. Heb. 2:7. The loadstone, indifferent to gold and pearl, draws the iron to it; thus Christ passed by the angels, who were of more noble extraction, and drew mankind to him. Christ loved us more than his own life; nay, though we had a hand in his death, yet that he should not leave us out of his will. This is a love that passeth knowledge; who can read this without seriousness? 

Second, Scripture concerns our eternal end; nothing could of greater concern to a human being than the unending end of his soul:

The Scripture speaks of the mystery of faith, the eternal recompenses, and the paucity of them that shall be saved. Matt. 20:16: “Few chosen.” One saith the names of all the good emperors of Rome might be engraved in a little ring; there are but (comparatively) few names in the Book of Life.

Third, Scripture explains with what deadly concern we must treat our destiny:

The Scripture speaks of striving for heaven as in an agony. Luke 13:24. It cautions us of falling short of the promised rest. Heb. 4:1. It describes the horrors of the infernal torments, the worm, and the fire. Mark 9:44. Who can read this and not be serious?

The lightness with which we treat Scripture must in part be because we do not actually think that much hangs in the balance. We belong to an age which does not consider Judgment Day to be a concern. Just today, a friend wrote to me and said many people treat Judgment Day as “Acceptance Day” because there God will be such an accepting Judge. Watson writes of this sort:

Some have light, feathery, spirits; they run over the most weighty truths in haste, (like Israel who eat the Passover in haste,) and they are not benefited by the word. Read with a solemn, composed spirit. Seriousness is the Christian’s ballast, which keeps him from being overturned with vanity.

Thomas Watson, “How We May Read the Scriptures with Most Spiritual Profit,” in The Bible and the Closet: Or How We May Read the Scriptures with the Most Spiritual Profit; and Secret Prayer Successfully Managed, ed. John Overton Choules (Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1842), 22–23.

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation XXIV

06 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized, William Spurstowe

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The previous post in this series may be found here

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Upon Gravity and Levity

The stoic philosophy was famous for paradoxes, strange opinions, improbable and beside common conceit [thinking] for which it was much admired by some an is greatly controlled and taxed by others. Howbeit, not Stoicism only but every art in course of life and learning has some paradoxes or other, the Christianity has many more which seem like nothing less than truth and yet are as true as strange.

What can be more contrary to the principles and maxims the philosophers then to hold that there is your grass from eight total privation to a habit? It was that which the Epicureans and the Stoics derided in Paul when he preached the resurrection from the dead, and yet Christians build all their happiness and confidence upon it.

What can seem to carry more contradiction in it and the saying of our Savior, He that will lose his life shall find it? And yet it is the truth of that importance whosoever follows not Christ counsel will certainly miss of life.

What will happily appear more novel and strange then that which I shall now add by inverting the axiom and affirming this truth, Light things fall downwards, and heavy ascend upward. Lighter they are, the lower they sink; and the heavier they are, the higher they rise: and yet this riddle has a truth in it. In Scripture the wicked that must fall as low as hell are resembled the things of the greatest levity as well as vileness, dust, chaff, smoke, fame, scum; and the saints that must ascend as high as Heaven I likened to things of weight as well as worth: to wheat, the heaviest of which is the best; to gold, which is of metals the weightiest as well as richest; to gems and precious stones, that are valued by the number of carats which they weight, as well as by their luster with which they sparkle.

Yea, God has his balance to weigh men and their actions, as well as his touchstone to try them. He is a God of knowledge, by whom actions are weighed, says Hannah in her song. And if he find great men a lie and vanity upon the balance he will not spare them. What is the fear judgment did God execute upon Belshazzar who being weighed and found wanting was in the same night cast out of his kingdom and from the land of the living?

And what a dreadful sentence has Christ foretold shall come up on his mouth and they great day against those who have made a vain an empty profession of his Name; who are bid to depart from him and go accursed into everlasting fire, not for doing evil against his but for not doing of good onto them? A form of godliness without the power will condemn, as well as Real an open wickedness. To be found too light and God’s scale maybe a bar to heaven, as well as the load of many sins.

Oh remember who has said it, Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. How gladly then I would persuade Christians at the best way to climb to Jacobs ladder which has its foot on earth and its top in glory is to be fully laden with all fruits of holiness.

The burden of Christ is not a pressing weight but a winged thing which carries the soul upwards and helps it to soar aloft towards God himself. None are crowned with the greater glory or set up on higher grounds then they who have their fruit under true holiness above others.

John Newton’s Letter to a Fearful Friend (2 Cor. 5:10)

21 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by in 2 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, John Newton

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LETTER III

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A friend of Newton, nearing death, asked him to explain 2 Corinthians 5:10, which states that we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Newton realized his friend was not merely concerned with an exegetically difficult text: His friend was really concerned with the question of Judgment Day: How will not be put to shame if we are going to still be judged for our sins — even if they are forgiven? Is Christ going to tell everyone every sin I have ever committed? If Christ does this, how will I live?

If Newton merely answered the exegetical question without looking to the heart which underlay that question, he would not have comforted the heart of a friend who was nearing death.

Therefore, Newton begins with (1) an acknowledgement that his friend is nearing death; and (2) some words of comfort:

MY heart congratulates you. What changes and events many in younger life may be reserved to see, who can tell? but your pilgrimage is nearly finished. You stand upon the river’s brink, with the city full in view, waiting and wishing for the appointed hour: you need not be anxious concerning your passage; for every circumstance attending it is already adjusted by Infinite Wisdom and Love, and the King himself will be ready to receive you.

Newton thus first strikes at the heart of the question: Does God really love me? The letter ultimately concerns assurance: Assurance not only of bare salvation, but assurance of welcome? Will I make it to Heaven and then be put to shame?

Newton now comes to state the issue. Notice how he phrases the issue in a willingness to help. Pastoral work can be taxing, and it is easy to not want to respond to one-more question. Moreover, many people think they are intruding or burdening their pastor by asking questions:

While you continue here, I am glad to hear from you, and should be glad to contribute in any way or degree to your satisfaction, or even to shew my willingness, if I can do no more. I can propose little more than the latter, by offering my thoughts on the subject you propose from 2 Cor. 5:10, and the apparent difficulty of understanding that passage in full harmony with the many texts which seem expressly to assert, that the sins of believers are so forgiven as to be remembered no more.

Notice how Newton phrases the question: The difficulty here is that 2 Corinthians 5:10 does not easily harmonize with other passages.

The next paragraph concerns the problem of textual difficulties at all. This understanding of how to handle a text fits with any number of exegetically difficult passages.

Continue reading →

An Ancient Plea for Judgment Day

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Old Testament Background

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This is a text written on a tomb from the 6th Dynasty Egypt (2345-2181 B.C.). The supplicant lists out his moral deeds, his care for the weak, his mercy & kindness, apparently as a sort of plea for Judgment Day. The text makes sense in light Paul’s argument in Romans 2:

Romans 2:12–16 (ESV)

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

INSCRIPTION OF NEFER-SESHEM-RE CALLED SHESHI:

(1) I have come from my town,
I have descended from my nome,
I have done justice for its lord,
I have satisfied him with what he loves.
I spoke truly, I did right,
I spoke fairly, I repeated fairly,
I seized the right moment,
So as to stand well with people.
(2) I judged between two so as to content them,
I rescued the weak from one stronger than he
As much as was in my power.
I gave bread to the hungry, clothes 〈 to the naked 〉,
I brought the boatless to land.
I buried him who had no son,
I made a boat for him who lacked one.
I respected my father, I pleased my mother.
I raised their children.
So says he (4) whose nickname is Sheshi.

STE
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973–), 17.

I spoke truly, I did right

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Ecclesiastes, OT Background

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This inscription was found a tomb of the 6th Dynasty in Egypt (2300-2100 BC). It is interesting in that shows a list of good works performed in his lifetime. The list is interesting for a few reasons. First, it is interesting that he makes the list at all. Human beings wished to thought to performed appropriately in the opinion of other humans — and this inscription being on a tomb, in the eyes of some god who judge. We are incorrigible in our desire to be found right (there is the matter of the rare one who has no conscience (or at least denies one) of any sort, which is for a different time). This is his opening argument on Judgment Day:

6 He will render to each one according to his works:
7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

Romans 2:6-8.

Second, the list is interesting in how similar it might be when given by one alive today. I could imagine a good, moral man making the same type of profession. He tells the truth. He helped those in need. He respected his family.

Third, the list is interesting in how mundane and stereotyped it seemed. He seems to have disappeared behind the list of expected good works — it makes me wonder if actually did anything of note. Did he really spend his day looking for poor, boatless people on the Nile?

I spoke truly, I did right,
I spoke fairly, I repeated fairly,
I seized the right moment,
So as to stand well with people.
(2) I judged between two so as to content them,
I rescued the weak from one stronger than he
As much as was in my power. [Ecclesiastes 4:1-3]
I gave bread to the hungry, clothes 〈 to the naked 〉,
I brought the boatless to land.
I buried him who had no son,
I made a boat for him who lacked one.
I respected my father, I pleased my mother.
I raised their children.
So says he (4) whose nickname is Sheshi.