Larger for Life

“I’m The following podcast is sponsored in part by the Blue Ridge Institute for Theological Education and Birmingham Theological Seminary. For more information about these institutions, please visit their websites at bright-va-va-va-org. That’s b-R-I-T-E-V-A-O-R-G or B-T-S dot education. And now, here is Larger for Life, a podcast on the Westminster Larger Catechism. Welcome back, Larger for Life fans. I guess I can call you fans. If you’ve been with us this long, you are fans. And so… Or long sufferers. Spend, you know? It’s only long suffering when we have to listen to Nick. I mean… True. And he’s not on this episode. So this is going to be one of joy and enthusiasm and happiness as we talk about the judgment of our Lord. That was that for irony. That’s right. We were talking about before this show went live, you know, when you’re singing things about, you know, the justice and the judgment of God, don’t sing it to Hiffordole, please. Just don’t. Or you’re singing an imprecatory psalm. and it’s like to the tune of kumbaya or something. Yeah, let’s not do that, guys. I mean, last episode, last episode we talked about the importance of singing rich theological hymns. Now we’re going to spend a whole episode talking about appropriate tunes to sing hymns of judgment, lament. injustice. It’s been since you mentioned that tune, and I think our friend Geffen from Wales, he listens to the show from time to time, and that’s a Welsh tune, and apparently everyone in America mispronounces it, so I’m glad that you said it the right way. It’s hydrophoil. That’s a beautiful tune, and people need to learn how to pronounce it the right way. Gethen, those words cannot possibly come out of a person’s mouth, letters don’t make those sounds. Americans, thank you very much, we are English 2.0. We have perfected the English language, and all others are obsolete, you know, enjoy your singular wireless. Let me just put it that way. Singular wireless version of English. So, yeah, we be perfected the English language long times ago, long times ago. Long times ago. So if you’re going to sing it, sing it to the tune hydroponics, and let’s move on. Good. Yeah, that’s right. No, guys, we’re here to talk about question 56 of the larger catechism. And we were joking about Nick not being here. He really isn’t here. That wasn’t a joke. Um, and so this is going to be a better episode. That’s not a joke either. Um, but, but nonetheless, uh, Derek nor Nick are with us. Um, and so it’s just, uh, Spinning Weber, myself and Sean Morris, the original three amigosos. Um, the, The brain trust of larger for life. Yes, this perfect. You are in for a treat as we talk about the judgment and justice of God. And so question 56, the question asks, how is Christ to be exalted and is coming again to judge the world? And the answer is, Christ is to be exalted and is coming again to judge the world, in that he, who was unjustly judged and condemned by wicked men, shall come again at the last day in great power, and in the full manifestation of his own glory and of his fathers, with all of his holy angels, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God to judge the world in righteousness. And so before I kick it off to Sean here to talk about this catechism question or to begin our conversation on this catechism question, let us be good Bible readers who understand that we are living in what the New Testament authors call the last days or the last hour. And so all throughout redemptive history, the only thing that we are waiting for at this point is the second coming of Christ. You know, read Revelation with that in mind. Okay. We are in the last hour. Okay. John says in 1 John chapter 2, children, it is the last hour. And so in this last hour, we are awaiting the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, where he comes to judge the living and the dead. And so as good New Testament readers, we know that this coming, the second coming of Christ, this last judgment of Christ as he, you know, consummates his kingdom as he judges the world. This is the final act of redemptive history that we are waiting on. But nonetheless, let’s not talk too much about eschatology, but let us dive into this question. And so, Sean, I think we know what it means that he is coming again. We believe in a second coming of Christ. But what does it mean? that he is coming to judge the world. Yeah, that’s, and a catechism sets it up so well for us. Again, we’re thinking, this is maybe a neglected aspect in folks thinking, but this is a proper part of Christ’s exaltation. The humiliation, you know, that we get. He lived as a man. He walked this earth. He had trials and sufferings and sorrows. He was crucified. He was… He died and was buried. That’s part of his humiliation. That we get, but then he rises again victoriously. He’s triumphing over sin, death, and the grave. That makes sense he’s exalted. He ascends on high to heaven, so he’s exalted on high. He sits at the father’s right hand. He makes intercession for his people. That’s all kingly and full of glory and full of triumphant connotations. That we get as part of exultation. But it’s important that we also understand that his return in judgment is, is also part of his exaltation. We need to think of it in the imagery of a conquering king, a righteous ruler, coming and that’s an exulting thing. It’s exalting him that he gets to return again victoriously and in triumph to the world that is his own. And he gets to come back to return and make all things well, to make all things right. He will, we’ll talk about this as we get on, but it’s that he’s going to wipe away every tear. He’s going to write every wrong. He’s going to undo every sorrow And this is a good thing. This is a wondrous thing. And this is part of his exaltation. He’s also coming back to execute vengeance on injustice. Not only the injustice that sin wreaks havoc upon in this world and the injustice that his people suffer, but in a sense regarding the injustice that he himself suffered. There’s a few proof text that are supplied here. in accordance with this catechism question that I wanted to read that make this point, one of them from Acts chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. It’s Peter’s second sermon here in these early chapters of Acts. and he’s replying to the people, and he’s making this point here. Let me start reading in verse 12, and I’ll stop reading in verse 15. But Peter, he’s replying to the people. He says, men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us as though our own power or godliness had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant, Jesus, the one whom you handed over and disowned in the presence of Pilate. when he, Pilate, had decided to release him. Verse 14, but you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And so there’s the holy, not holy, but W-H-O-L-L-Y, that sense, not H-O-L-Y, the holy awful miscarriage of justice, the greatest injustice that was ever rendered against the Prince of Life and the Lord of Glory in handing him over to a perversion of justice and to death. That was a great wrong… no doubt. He was unjustly judged and condemned by wicked men. That’s one of the first aspects that the catechism question emphasizes here. And so when he comes again to judge the world, that’s part of what’s going to be in view here, is wreaking a holy vengeance against that injustice, bringing it to bear it last. For now, he’s So forbearing, because that was a holy, awful injustice, and he has not wrought that vengeance against the world yet. He’s forbearing until the last of his own are gathered in, but when that day comes, it will be an awful, awful thing to behold. John 5, I’ve been preaching through the gospel of John. As we speak, I’m actually preaching the second half of John 18, but all the way back in John chapter 5. One of the things that John is trying to establish is, throughout the entire gospel is the equality of authority between the father and the son, which is a consequence of their equality of being. They’re the same in substance, equal in power and glory. And so, consequently, they’re the same and equal in authority. So that helps us to make sense of those tricky bits in scripture, where it sounds like Jesus is doing something to the exclusion of the father. So, John 522, for the father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the son, that all may honor the son just as they honor the father. Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Rather than thinking about, okay, the father has given all judgment to the son, that is to Jesus, and the father sort of sitting off in the sidelines, twiddling his thumbs, no, it is that the father is going to judge the world through the son, much in the same way that the father made the world through the agency of the son and the perfecting power of the spirit. So we believe in an undivided trinity, and so inseparable operations, all three persons, uh, are working in every act of creation and redemption in ways that are, we say, proper to their personal properties, which Derek was here and he could tell me if I’m a heretic now. But all that is to say is that Jesus coming in the last day to judge will be a demonstration to especially those who unjustly condemned him and to all who reject the Lord Jesus Christ, it will be a demonstration that He is God, because God is the ultimate judge. And so for Jesus to judge at the last day is to say that He is God. He is God alone, Father, Son, and Spirit. And when he comes, what’s the standard of judgment going to be? The standard of judgment is going to be Christ himself. Did you repent of your sins and believe in me? Our works are going to demonstrate this, whether we have loved the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we come before him, even as professing believers. Remember, we’re going to be judged according to works. We’re not going to be saved by our works. But our works will demonstrate that, yeah, we in life loved the Lord Jesus Christ. And there’s going to be lots of people who maybe had a great deal of good things that they did, but because they didn’t love Christ and he never knew them, they will suffer his just judgment. Why? Because the emphasis is not upon what we do, but it’s upon who we know. Right. And so Christ is both the judge and he’s the fulcrum or the reference point of judgment. What did you believe concerning me? Right, Spinn. And, you know, that’s this, this second coming, revealing to the world that he is God is why the Apostle Paul says, every knee on heaven and earth shall bow and under the earth, for they’ll know, right? They’ll know that he is Lord. Right. And I think that brings up a question of what our attitude should be when we begin to think about the second coming of Christ. We were joking a little bit at the very beginning of this episode about singing jovial tunes to hymns about God’s justice and judgment. Right. And there is a sense in which we should tremble, right, at his second coming, because we will see the Lord in all of his power and in a full visible personal revelation. And yet for the people of God, it can be a day of longing and rejoicing. If we know him and have lived for his glory, if we have proved to be his disciples, we can… eagerly look forward to this day with a joyful anticipation because as the apostle John says, on the day that we see him, we will be like him. And so on that day of judgment, we are glorified, vindicated fully in the person and work of Christ. And so for us as believers, we’re, It’s a day that we long for. You know, I remember years and years ago now when when that false teacher, Harold Camping, was, you know, broadcasting all over the nation that like May the 5th, I don’t know why chose Cinco de Mayo, if I’m remembering correctly, but on May the 5th, Jesus was going to return. Yeah, and I think that was the same year when May the 5th fell on Tuesday, so it was going to be Taco Tuesday, Cinco de Mayo, and the return of Christ on the same day. Yeah. What a glorious day. Yeah. but I remember, you know, talking about the foolishness of Harold camping with one of my ruling elders here in Dylan and he goes, you know, he’s not right. Um, but I sure wish that he was. You know, this heart posture of longing, of joyful anticipation of being able to stand before the Lord vindicated in Christ. And so I repeat, for us as believers, it is a day that we should look forward to. That is the attitude that we should have. But for those who are apart from Christ, I mean, here’s the reversal of that, right? Those who are apart from Christ, you know, it is a message that should cause them to tremble in their boots. Because for the believer, it might be a day of glorification, but for the unbeliever, for those who do not know God, who have not lived for his glory, it will be a day of utter eternal damnation. And And that should motivate our preaching pastors who are listening to this. I know it motivates mine and Sean and spins that there is eternal destinies that will be experienced at this second coming of Christ, at the judgment of Christ. And for those who will call upon the name of the Lord and be saved, it is a day that we don’t have to shrink back in fear. But for those who stand apart from Christ, the warning is there. He will come with a vengeance. He will come with a holy wrath that will be poured out upon all of his enemies and all of our enemies. Yeah, and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You know, we don’t like thinking about this damnation of our Lord, the judgment seat of the Lord against people who are not his. And yet it’s an utter graciousness to his people that not only at a second coming, may we be uplifted in heart, but we can see how Christ is making all things new again. He is eradicating sin from his kingdom. He is eradicating wickedness, taking away all the consequences of the fall for those people who are his. And so his judgment is gracious for his people, utterly gracious. And for those who aren’t his people, it is utterly righteous because he is light. And in him, there is no darkness at all. Right. And so, yeah, what are y’all guys thinking about this? Well, two passages come to mind as you were speaking about why we as believers should long for and eagerly await the coming of our Lord. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, Paul is talking about how our outer man is wasting away. We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, hold on to that word grown, right? We groan being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, which is a thing not to look forward to, but that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. This mirrors the language, doesn’t it, of Romans 8? for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us, for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. The creation was subjected to futility. And it’s groaning, awaiting the revealing of the sons of God. So the judgment is going to reveal who really belongs to the Lord and who doesn’t. And for those of us that do belong to the Lord, we stand to inherit the place that He is prepared for us. So when we talk about this topic of judgment, it is with a certain degree of sobriety and solemnity. Because we do not want our neighbors to fall under the wrath and condemnation of God. I can’t remember who it was. Was it Whitfield? An unbeliever said, you know, I don’t believe Mr. Whitfield, but when he preaches on the doctrine of hell, he preaches it with tears. Was that Whitfield? I’m trying to remember. You’re the church historian, Sean. Yeah, that sounds like it may be apocryphal, but that sounds like a statement that Benjamin Franklin may have made in the hearing one of Whitfield’s sermons. I quoted from the apocrypha. How dare I? See, you get these bad habits. It’s hard to get them out of your system, but we’re here to help you, spin. Thanks, Tobit. So, Jesus is coming. And when we think about this, we shed at the same time two types of tears. Tears for our neighbors, because the judgment of God isn’t awful. thing. We don’t want to be on the business end of God’s justice. But for those who hide in the wounds of Christ, who took the cross, the death and the shame and the guilt of our sin upon himself, we look forward to it. And when he comes, this is a fun Bible trivia thing, where’s the first place you encounter trumpets in the Bible, Mount Sinai? Right. God’s coming down and the age will close with trumpets when we see the Lord descend. And at that point, it’s too late, right? The door is shut, as it were. And we’ll be called up to give an account for everything we thought, said and did. And as we’ve said in previous episodes, I can’t plead my own case, but we have Christ pleading our case for us, appealing to his righteousness and not ours. Right. Go ahead, Matt. Yeah. Well, I was just going to… mention a question that is probably on our listeners’ minds, but also is addressed in Voss’s commentary. And Sean, you might have been going to this because Spinn just spoke of how we all will be judged. And so Voss asked the question, will Christian people be judged at Christ’s second coming? And he answers with, yes, they will be judged. but not condemned. In their case, the sentence will be one of acquittal because of Christ’s blood and righteousness, which are imputed or reckoned to their account. And so, you know, one of the things in which we have to understand, we’re talking about the longing and the joy of the believer in the second coming of Christ. It’s not that we get to skip the judgment seat, right? But it’s that we get to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and have, his blood and righteousness advocate on our behalf. And so, yes, judged, not condemned. So, yes, believer, you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and all of your sins will be listed. And yet at the very same time, as we said in the previous episode, it will be as if, you had fully obeyed. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all in righteousness. The righteousness of Christ stands in your place. You know, one of the things in which I’ve used an illustration before is, you know, no earthly illustration fully grasped this. But I had a youth when I was doing youth ministry asked me one time, is it kind of like, You know, all of our sins are written on a whiteboard. And at the judgment seat of Christ, Jesus comes and he erases all of the sins off of our whiteboard. And I said, no. Because, you know, if you ever seen a well-used whiteboard, it still has the smudges and the shadows of what is written. I said at the judgment seat, Jesus takes our whiteboard and, full of our sins, and he throws it out the window, and he places his perfectly white, pristine whiteboard in our place, and it’s as if we had obeyed perfectly. It’s as if we had not sinned. And so there’s not going to be a smudge of our sin held against us, not a shadow of our sin, that we have to account for because as we are looked upon at the judgment seat, it’s as if we are completely innocent, because Christ is completely innocent. I love how you both have been emphasizing this, and I forget which theologian or thinker that I’m riffing this off of, but there really are these twin dimensions. When we think about the Second Coming, when we think about the return of Christ, there are these twin dimensions that we need to bear in mind that for the For the unregenerate man, for the non-Christian, for the non-believer, Christ’s return will be a thing of awful terror. awful and meaning bad, right? But for the believer, it will be a thing of awful joy. And in that sense, it’s awful, as in the old sense of the word awful, not bad, but full of awe. He’s returning at last in glory to make all things right, to make all things well, to vindicate his own glory and the, and to vindicate his church and his suffering people. Both of those things have to be born in mind. And I love how, let’s see if I can find it here in our friend Voss, the way he laid it out. It was just, it was almost… poetry the way he describes it here. Oh, here we are. What should be our attitude? Speaking of believers. So we think of non-believers. We think of the unregenerate. It’s going to be a terrible, horrendous thing when Christ returns in judgment because, as Spinn already said, it’s too late. The time has passed, the day of redemption. But for the Christian, We should look forward to these great redemptive events, he writes, with eager and joyful anticipation, realizing that they will bring about the completion of our redemption in our complete and permanent deliverance from sin, death, and their consequences. Titus 2, verse 13, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. 1. Peter 1.13, wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Luke 21, verse 28. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption drawleth nigh. I dare say that we don’t think about the return of Christ that much, or at least as often as we should, as Christians. And when we do, I think we tend to think of the punitive aspect of it, judging evil and judging wickedness and vanquishing sin and punishing the evildoer. Those are all right aspects, of course, but I suspect that this… dimension of Christ’s return is something that is vastly underplayed and under-emphasized in the contemporary church, that the Christian should look forward with a joyful anticipation, with an eager yearning and a holy joy anticipating the return of Christ. There’s at least, as I read Foss’s words there, that’s a good corrective for my own soul. Because what’s going to be the consequence of Christ’s coming at judgment, he’s going to set all things right. And who doesn’t want that? That’s why we say sometimes, come quickly, Lord Jesus, because this world is not our home, at least not this world in its present condition. It’s groaning. It’s waiting for something better. And so judgment is like that first step through the threshold into eternity, where Jesus ushers in a world better than Eden and one that isn’t subject to change. And so when we’re judged, we’re going to be made like Jesus. We’re going to reflect his glory perfectly. Judgment is, yeah, judgment is not a thing that we, oof, wince at. Now, to be sure, there are lots of bad ways to talk about judgment. That’s right. If we’re talking about judgment rightly, though, it should be with tears, but it also should give us a tremendous sense of humility and gratitude. Humility. So in our evangelism, Matt kind of talked about it. And I’m actually doing some work right now on the law of God and how Samuel Bolton in his book, on the law of God and how the moral law still has a role in the Christian life, you know, a man can preach the law and not be considered a legal preacher because what the law does is it puts before us the standard by which we will be judged at the last day and says, listen, you won’t make it. It’s very interesting in his book on the law. Oh gosh, it’s Not Anthony Burgess. Oh, Stephen Ting, he was like an Episcopalian, a 19th century Episcopalian minister. He has a series of lectures on the laws and the law on the gospel. He says that the law does not invite. The law does not invite one to come and to look to it for righteousness, but it drives us to Jesus Christ. And so here, I think there are two things that Christians can kind of wince at. We wince at the notion of judgment and we wince at the law, but the proclamation of these two realities, one that there’s a standard, and two, we’re going to be judged by that standard one day. This is a mercy of God that drives us to Jesus Christ. So there’s a hell, fire, and brimstone kind of way of talking about judgment that I think a lot of us have grown allergic to. But if we’re doing it right, if we’re evangelizing our neighbor and saying, brother, one day the Lord is coming, And I don’t know about you, but when I look into my own heart and my own mind, you know, if if the things that I’ve thought or all the things I’ve said were to be recorded and put into video format, I would not want to go to that premiere. I would not want to sit for that show. I shudder to think of the thought, right? So there’s humility. But Jesus Christ died for those sins. And so I have certainty. I have assurance. I’ve got confidence. I’ve got confidence. Right? Not presumptuousness, but confidence that Jesus Christ was righteous. And I look forward to that day when all of these things, all these things that Romans 7, the things that I do, I hate doing, I won’t have to have that inner struggle anymore. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. I’m longing for that day. I don’t know about you. No, that’s a great point because for the believer, for the Christian, who’s clothed in the robes of Christ’s righteousness, who’s in union with Christ… The return of Christ is good news. And we don’t tend to think of it that way. Yes, it’s, again, there’s more than one thing can be true at the same time. But there is an aspect of Christ’s return at second coming in judgment that is good news for the Christian. And there’s great comfort there. I know we’re moving towards a conclusion. There’s a few things I think we ought to bring out just as we’re thinking about the doctrine here in this catechism question. and that is the nature of Christ return. I was just thinking on it and consulting Voss’s commentary as well, but you think of Acts chapter 1, Christ ascension, and the angels, men, why are you looking up into the sky? Do you not know that in like manners you’ve seen him go into heaven, Christ will return from heaven? And so that’s just, you know, the nature of Christ’s return. That is, Like his ascension, it was personal, it was visible, it wasn’t hidden, it wasn’t secret, it was public, it was physical and personal, but it was also supernatural. Well, it’s going to be that in the inverse or the reverse when he comes to Again, personal, visible, also supernatural. I love the way the Voss puts it in his commentary there. Christ’s second coming will be a miraculous or supernatural coming, which will crash through the order of nature with the almighty power of God. I love that descriptor there. And then we sort of were joking about it earlier, but it is worth pointing out that, because Voss does it as well here in his commentary, that the standards say nothing whatever about the millennium. So whether a person is, depending on their eschatological convictions, if they’re an ah millennialist or a post-millennialist or a historical pre-millennialist, That’s fine. They can derive great doctrine, great comfort, and informed theological perspective from the standards because the standards don’t take an outright position on the matter, as all three of those camps, including our partial preterist friends, look forward to the return of Christ. I suppose the full preterist and certain wings of that school of thought. There is no second coming to look forward to, but we’re not including them in the discussion here. The rest of the historic eschatological views in Christendom, we’re all looking forward to the return of Christ, whatever our eschatological differences might be. Yeah, I mentioned earlier the clouds, right? The clouds and trumpets. That announced the coming of God and the delivery of the law, right, in Exodus chapter 19 and 20. And so it’s going to happen… In that same way, when Jesus comes back, he’s going to come on the clouds, which are a picture of judgment and justice and righteousness and the trumpets proclaiming the Lord’s descending to earth for judgment. And like you said, we’re not dealing with, at least not in my context, very many people who are dispensationalists or recovering dispensationalists with things like the secret rapture. Right. Maybe some of us read Left Behind series by Tim LaHay. Oh, man, I did. I read every single one of those bad boys. I was very much in junior high and high school. Yep. Yep. It’s going to be visible. And. all the world is going to be gathered before the throne. So Matthew 25, 31 to 33, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, so there’s going to be this regal host, you know, the angelic host is going to descend, as it were, with Jesus and… I’m sorry, we’re all going to see that. We’re going to see that. It won’t be like the eclipse where it’s like, man, I got to drive to like middle of nowhere, Indiana to see it. It’s like, I missed it. It’s going to be universal in scope. Then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all nations and he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. There’s an allusion there to Daniel chapter 7 verse 27 when the son of man who’s given a kingdom by the ancient of days comes on clouds. Again, whether it’s literally clouds like a cubicus nimbus, maybe we have a whole episode where we talk about what type of cloud exactly it’s going to be. Gazuntite, by the way, for that sneeze, your allergies are getting to you, I see. Much appreciated. You know, like a sword coming out of Jesus’ mouth. I want to say, the book of Revelation, there’s lots of figurative language, symbolic language, but whatever it looks like, it will be visible, it will be personal, it will be Jesus who’s coming back, and you won’t miss it. And I’m preaching through John’s Gospel and also I’ve preached through Matthew, talking about the judgment of God, if we’re understanding the doctrine rightly, we’re not fixating upon it so much so that we sort of, like the church in Thessalonica did, they kind of sit on their hands that they say, well, Jesus could come back anytime now. And so I guess we can just sort of, you know, pass the time and no need to go and really do anything because Jesus is coming back tomorrow. That’s a problem. Okay. But the equal but opposite problem is 2 Peter 3. Well, where is the Lord’s second coming? Everything’s just kind of continuing on the way that it is. There’s not going to be a judgment. The Christian occupies that middle ground where we say, Jesus is free to come back at any point in time. You don’t need to have this golden age, whatever that is. I think it’s undefined and it’s very ambiguous. Jesus could come back any moment. And yet we’re called to live faithfully and to trust the Lord today and with however many days he gives us. So if we’re if we’re looking at the judgment rightly, it doesn’t make us complacent in our duty, but it does give us motivation to say, you know what, redeem the time. redeem the time. There should be a, not a frenzy, but a, I’ll call it a sanctified sense of urgency to keep our lamps trimmed and burning, to keep short accounts with God, to hate sin, and to flee from it today, and to not put off repentance until the last second, because we don’t know. He’s going to come like a thief in the night at the moment when you least expect it. So the Christian should… constantly be living in light of eternity with expectation, with sobriety, and, yeah, I think a commitment to redeem the time that we have. Yeah, that’s right. And like you said, scripture says, every eye shall see him, every eye shall behold him. Sounds pretty public to me. One of the verses that’s cited here is in First Thessalonians chapter four, starting verse 16 there, Verse 15, for we say this to you, Paul writes, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep, or those who, he’s being euphemistic there, those who’ve died, but died in faith in Christ. Verse 16, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, we will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so we will always be with the Lord. So we’re not trying to take cheap shots or mean shots at our dispensationalist friends and neighbors, but for those who are listeners who may be coming out of that school of thought or grew up with that school of thought, or maybe they have family members or friends who are prone to that theology. When I read verses like that, boy, it doesn’t sound like a secret silent rapture to me. It sounds pretty public. It sounds pretty audible with the sound of a trumpet. That’s going to be – sounds pretty global. It’s going to be evident. It’s going to be obvious. All those things that you already said. Secret silent rapture. Every eye beholding – I don’t see how that lines up with every eye beholding him, with him descending with the shout of the archangel with the voice of a trumpet and this global phenomenon, this worldwide phenomenon taking place that everyone’s going to see. The rapture of which – the scripture speaks is when we are caught up in the clouds at the Lord’s return. So it seems that seems fairly straightforward from Paul’s words there, first Thessalonians. But I know there’s a debate within the last 100, 200 years or so amongst Bible-believing Christians, but it’s worth pointing that out for our listeners who are either new to reform theology or maybe are still wrestling through some of these implications. Yeah. Yeah, and some of our friends, we have friends who are historic pre-millennials, and they believe that I mean, I know of one, and I don’t know if this is uniform among them, but they believe in two resurrections. They believe in the resurrection of the righteous. So they’ll go to those places in scripture where it talks about the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the unrighteous to judgment. And they’ll take that as two separate events. The historic reformed believe that there will be one general resurrection, both of the just and the unjust, to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and upon their judgment, either to be deemed the sheep that enter into the father’s rest or to be the goat. So it’s not two separate events, but it’s two classes of people that are going before the one judgment seat of Christ. So we believe that I’m a millennial and Sean is too. We believe that the whole thousand year period is here and now. It’s the period between Christ’s ascension into heaven, and his coming from heaven at the second coming in judgment. And he’s going to come one time. He’s going to come one time. And so that’s where, you know, I’ve always found it very interesting for those who believe in a 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth. Why wouldn’t I delay repentance? Right? If I was like, well, you know, maybe I can hold out hope that maybe I’m going to be, you know, in that 1,000 year period where I can like, shucks. I didn’t get raptured with the rest of the really good, you know, the supremely righteous. But like, man, I could probably get my act together within a thousand years. Right. So I can clean it up and get it together here. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m sure. I can’t imagine we have any dispensationalist listeners now. Like you said, maybe people coming out of the tradition, but they’d be like, that’s not what we believe. But here I am just kind of being like, you know, We could find a way to leverage this position, just hold out hope for the thousand years. Right, well, and to your point that you were making just a few moments earlier, well, let me skip a hit here and give our listeners a preview of coming attractions. Question 87 of the larger catechism, it gets at what you were just saying, Spin, what are we to believe concerning the resurrection? Answer, we are to believe that at the last day there will be a general resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. When they that are then found alive shall in a moment be changed, and the self-same bodies of the dead, which were laid in the grave, being then, again, united to their souls forever, shall be raised up by the power of Christ. And then, question 88, immediately after that resurrection, shall follow the general and final judgment of angels and men. So the larger catechism sure seems to reinforce and take the position that you’ve already articulated of the historic reform position of one general resurrection. John 5, 27 and 28 is always where I take people. And he has given him authority to execute judgment. That’s the father giving judgment to the son. He is the one who’s going to be the standard and the agent of judgment because he’s the son of man. And he says, do not marvel at this for an hour, an hour. One hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. So some people will say, oh, resurrection of life. That’s one resurrection. Resurrection of judgment. That’s another one. And they’ll use that to say, well, maybe there’s like a thousand years between those two resurrections. We say no, an hour is coming. There’s going to be an event wherein both of these things are. take place. So it’s kind of fun. We’re covering ground here as we sort of wrap up this episode. In Voss’s commentary on the larger catechism, he’s got the benefits of the mediator’s work, beginning with question 57. So we’re kind of turning a page, as it were, in our study of the larger catechism. And we’re going to, I think, start talking about, justification, adoption, sanctification, all the benefits that we get from Christ being our mediator. So you’ve preached to a sermon recently on the Golden Chain, have you not? Yeah, about a year, year and a half ago or so, I did a brief sermon series on the Golden Chain of Salvation with our church here at Oak Ridge, yeah. Well, you better… I mean, if you don’t knock this next portion of the podcast out of the park, perpetually disappointed. I’ll be so disappointed in you. Well, I’ve got a few weeks to clean up my act and get it together, because we’re going to talk about redemption and what about those who’ve never heard the gospel. We’re going to talk with the visible church, the invisible church, union with Christ, and then starting at 67 onward. That’s when we start getting into those links together. in the golden chain about a factual calling and justification and sanctification and so forth. So I’ve got a few weeks to get my act together before we get into the golden chain proper. But you’re right, we are headed into a great and meaty and wondrous section of the catechism here in the next few months. Yep. And we’re looking forward to you continuing to the next. through the larger catechism with us. We’re still thankful for those of you that listen to us regularly. I think we’ll have a book giveaway coming up here soon. Today’s not that day, but it’s coming. You can look forward to it. No one knows that day or the hour. Actually, we might know the day of the hour. We know the day or the hour. We don’t know who it is yet, you know, but maybe we could look down the corridors of the podcast and figure out who do we think would be most deserving of a free book and a book giveaway. That’s right. Yep. Well, hey, thanks so much again for listening friends. We’re glad you’re with us, and we look forward to studying more of these rich doctrines with you. We’ll see you next time on Larger for Life. You have been listening to Larger for Life, a podcast on the Westminster Larger Catechism brought to you by the Blue Ridge Institute and Birmingham Theological Seminary. For more information about this podcast, please visit our website on Podbean at largerforlife.podbean.com, where you can subscribe to the show in the podcast platform of your choice and browse past episodes. You can also follow us on Twitter or Facebook. On Twitter, you can follow us at Larger for Life podcast, and on Facebook, you can follow us at facebook.com slash larger for life. Be sure to tune in next time and join us again at Larger for Life. the uh the uh”